04/03/2008

Was Peter Offside?

In today's Greenock Telegraph Brian Wake told Chris Fitzgerald that he thought the late goal he laid on for Peter Weatherson should have stood because, in his opinion, Weatherson was behind him.

He said: “I could have had a shot myself, but there was a man on the line and he had narrowed the angle, so I squared to Peter. We both thought it was a goal because there was a man on the line.
But when we asked the referee why he disallowed it he said you have to have two men on the line if the keeper is out for it to be on onside. It’s a new one on me, especially as I thought Peter was behind me when I played the ball to him."

I have to admit that until I watched the gmfc.net highlights tonight I thought Wake was talking nonsense. After looking at it again I think he might have a point.

The image below is taken just after Wake has played the ball and Weatherson looks in line with him to me - to be offside he has to be closer to the goal than both the second last opponent and the ball. It certainly isn't conclusive but both players look to be a similar distance from the six yard line. The linesman had the best view of this and gave the goal. The referee claimed the goal was disallowed because there was only one player on the line but this is irrelevant.

Click image to enlarge. The picture quality isn't the best as it's a mobile phone camera picture(2mp) of a PC monitor playing the clips on gmfc.net.




Read Wake's comments here: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/20660

Download the clip here and make up your own mind: http://www.gmfc.net/webcast-video-clips.asp

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Em.. not learnt how to use a screen grab yet JonaTon?

Jonathan Mitchell said...

Yes, I have thanks.

I tried that for ages but it wouldn't work properly - the image would save to the my PC but when I uploaded to the blog the picture kept coming out blank.