My remark about the Spuds goal was intended to defend our players reactions, not intending to start WWIII!
I don't think the centre backs stopped because they thought the whistle would blow for offside. I reckon they stopped because they thought Forster was going to deal with it. Anyway, who cares now. He made a couple of great saves as well.
That last one is interesting. More often than not if the ball rebounds to a player who was in an offside position, it is deemed not to be offside. Sharp v Portsmouth for example.
And so he should really. He misjudged it simple as that. If that were me I'd have forgotten about the good saves and be fretting over that one (I can still remember a 'sitter' I missed in 1987!). I think to be a top class sportsman though you need to be positive and focus on the good stuff. You'd end up a nervous wreck otherwise
The offside rule used to be so simple. Offside? Yes - flag. Infuriating when the player that was offside was stood on the far touchline, and clearly not interfering with play, but that's the way it was, and you vented your spleen on the player and not on the linesman. Is today's interpretation of the rule better? IMO, no it isn't. It's too open to individual interpretation and therein lies the problem, in most cases. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that teams practice this type of scenario on the training ground, just as they do with free kick routines that start with several players in offside positions to "act as a distraction" to those defending. Why, for example, when finding himself offside, did Kane continue to run parallel to our defenders, when instinct would have been screaming out for him to get back onside? If I am correct, the offside rule used to include a line to the effect "the player in an offside position must be considered to be trying to gain an advantage". If that line is still active, it should be amended to "the player in an offside position must be considered to be trying to gain an advantage, for his team", which could have been the case on Sunday.
I am as prejudiced as the next fan, but no way should Kane have been flagged offside. He was clearly putting himself out of play and leaving the ball for Son. We wouldn't be arguing at all if Forster had fully committed himself and not made everyone look like chumps. All's well that ends well.
