Two former English Premier League match officials criticised referee Mike Jones today for allowing a goal that deflected in off a beach ball in Sunderland‘s 1-0 victory over Liverpool on Saturday.
Dermot Gallagher, a topflight referee between 1992 and 2007, said that Darren Bent’s fifth-minute goal at the Stadium of Light on Saturday should have been disallowed with play being restarted by a “drop ball”.
“It was such a glaring error. Everybody knows that when something encroaches on to the pitch the game stops,” he said.
“It’s an error that no one can fathom because it goes down to grass-roots level in the laws of the game. For it to happen in a high-profile game at this level is unbelievable. Any one of the four (officials) could have stepped in.”
Jeff Winter, whose final game as a referee was the 2004 FA Cup final between Manchester United and Millwall, said this mistake was even worse than officials not seeing whether the ball has crossed the goal line.
Source: supersport.co.za
Pic: premierleague.com
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