Quiz question. Which two ex-Saints first team members still play professional football from the FA Cup Final season 2002-03? Come on, you're bored. Answer it.
Very good saintrichie123. Matty is 38 [thirty-eight for pete's sake] and Chris is 33. I hope they both keep on playing.
Well, what do our referees (or anyone else for that matter) on here think, should it? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35636778
By the new laws it's offside. I think if the manager of the team scoring the goal says it's offside then it's pretty clear cut
All 3 players running out are in the keeper's line of sight, so should be a definite offside, in my book. IMO, linesmen need to flag, then let the ref decide if interference has occurred, although United appear to have "played" the ref, by asking him about it, before the game. Effectively stopped him from disallowing it, when it happened. Hopefully the referee's governing body will make a clear ruling on this.
No, they shouldn't need to. They can communicate through earpieces and the assistants aren't in a good position to judge whether someone is interfering with play.
Surely though, when the ball is kicked at least one of the offside players is in the eyeline of the goalkeeper?
Do you think they stood where they did to deliberately block the keeper's view? I believe that is why they were there, so for me they were deliberately interfering with the keeper. Where I feel sorry for the ref is that nobody has ever tried that before. I wouldn't be surprised if someone else tries it they deem it offside.
Of course they should flag, especially when the ball hits the back of the net. They are there to indicate when a player is offside, and then it is up to the ref to decide if they are interfering with play, or not. The offside rule, as it stands, is ridiculous and it is being made to look more so by officials applying it, in my opinion, incorrectly. As you say, in most cases a linesman is not in a good enough position to judge if a player is close enough to the ball, to interfere, so many opt out and don't flag, which then allows the ref to cop out of making a decision to disallow a goal, that shouldn't be allowed to stand. This happens enough, in open play, with refs not being asked to make decisions, because the linesman hasn't flagged for offside, because the player, getting out of the way of the ball, wasn't moving towards it. The Utd incident was quite clear, even to the ref, that players were offside, but he had already given them "permission" to do this, (which he should be investigated for), which effectively prevented him from disallowing the "goal".
The assistant can't flag just because someone is in an offside position. Everyone will stop. It's better to consult and then raise the flag.
If everyone stops then they are truly **** at football. Don't play to the flag; play to the whistle. I learned that at primary school... Linos should raise the flag and then it is up to the ref.
Really? Isn't it his job to notify the ref when a player is offside, and the ref's job to decide on interference etc?
Is St Badger suggesting in his post that United told the ref before he game they were going to do it? If so, that is wrong. Anyone remember the Giggs/Rooney corner routine where one would go to take the corner and casually knock the ball out of the quadrant as the other came over pretending he was going to take the corner, so he got the ball and just dribbled it? My team did that in the Southern League years before United did it. We spoke to the referee before the game and explained what we were going to do so he knew the corner had been "taken"... We did it, scored and he disallowed the goal. That ref went on to become a Premier League ref with a bigger ego than Clutts.
