Not so dubious

By David B (legacy user)27/8/2014 12:12Wed Aug 27 12:12:35 2014In response to Dubious goals committee

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Unless Steve can confirm that the ball went into the opposite half (side to side) of the goal, I would credit Ollie with the goal. From side on it looked as if he was shooting at goal, and my angle suggested that the ball was deflected more up than sideways. As managers love to say, however, it is all about angles. I spoke with a number of Harrow fans after the game and although they said it was an own goal, they also admitted they would have been disappointed for the shooter if it had been at the other end. As with Steve, I immediately credited Ollie with the goal and also had no idea which Borough player had deflected the ball into the net.

Credit to the referee for conferring to his assistant about the goal. It happens too rarely. I think both were correct, there was a player in an offside position and he may have been interfering with the goalkeeper’s line of sight. However, the referee’s angle - there's that word again - suggested he had no bearing on where the ball went or denied Charlie Horlock the chance of making a save (his defender did that!). The later decision to rule out the goal was spot on as the player in an offside position (Kezie?) clearly affected the way Horlock went for the ball, irrespective of whether he touched the ball or not. This is the greyest of grey areas when it comes to active and passive offside decisions.