Dissapointed- The goal that Never was.

[Cripple Creek]

It has happened before, Nürnberg v. Bayern München, 1994.

Thomas Helmer was awarded a goal when the ball went past the Nürnberg post. Nürnberg lost 2-1. The game was replayed for the first time ever in the Bundesliga; Nürnberg lost 5-0 and were relegated that season on goal difference.

[SpaghettiHoop]

Didn't the ref even things up by disallowing Bikey's goal?

[Millsy]

Disappointed with coppell today, we might not have gone against the rules of the game, but we went against the spirit.
There is no way we should have accepted that as a goal, once it was given and we had a chance to discuss the incident at half time we should of walked the ball into our own net. It was a real scrubby move to play on as if nothing had happened.
I know we are a terrible team away from home but we were scraping the bottom of the barrel. Its not as if it was a " you win some you lose some" goal, it was NEVER a goal in a million years and we were awarded a goal out of nowhere. There wasn't even a decision to be made, the manager, players and club should be ashamed of themselves tonight.

I agree with the sentiment completely.

This is totally unlike a dodgy penalty or offside decision it was a blatant cockup and I was the only one in my group saying we should let them have a goal against a barrage of abuse from idiots who are more happy for Reading to get a dishonest point than trult to deserve a win. As it happened not giving them a goal proved to ruin a game we might otherwise have legitimately won (relentless shocking decisions against us for the rest of the game) and hopefully wiped the smile off my cheating shameless acquaintances' faces.

HOWEVER

As has been pointed out it couldn't be overturned at the time as only a few of the players will have seen what happened and even they were probably a little confused. So it would have to be a second half decision. But on hearing Coppell's post match press conference I have to concede that what happened was fair enough after all: he explained that with players getting drinks, going to toilet etc he only typically has 5-6 precious minutes to have a chat with them and he sure as hell isn't going to waste that time discussing with the few players who saw the incident whether it was a goal and then having a debate with the team as to whether and how they should give a goal back!!! He had much more important things to do! (Like figure out how to concede 2 goals in the second half )

He did hint, and I believe him, that had the ref blatantly just come up to him in half time and said it was a definite mistake things would be different. But the ref didn't do that. And he didn't have the will or the luxury of the rest of us to ponder a possible bad decision, he was trying to run a game for godsakes! Football's football, every second counts. Even in the break. If an official makes a mistake you've just got to get your head down and carry on concentrating and getting the best out of the seconds you actually have rather than pondering decisions in the first half!

Would it be fair or us to give them the goal back but then lose the advantage of a constructive half time chat? No. As Coppell said it's not a team's job to right the wrongs of the officials. In the few extremely stressful minutes he has at half time he looks forward, not backward.

I was totally with you on that at first and was very very ashamed and argued with ppl around me. But Coppell made a lot of sense to me and I begrudgingly now accept that there was little shame in how things worked out. We shouldn't be blamed for a lino's error!

[MR. CYNICAL]

The frightening thing is that officials are capable of making such shocking decisions.
I suggest that the linesman involved should be relieved of his duties for the remainder of the season.

[Chaney]

The frightening thing is that officials are capable of making such shocking decisions.
I suggest that the linesman involved should be relieved of his duties for the remainder of the season.

odds on he will ne suspended for some considerable time, seems odd why the ref didn`t overrule him though, surely hes got a pair of eyes of his own so I would imagine he is in hot water himself

[Millsy]

The frightening thing is that officials are capable of making such shocking decisions.
I suggest that the linesman involved should be relieved of his duties for the remainder of the season.

odds on he will ne suspended for some considerable time, seems odd why the ref didn`t overrule him though, surely hes got a pair of eyes of his own so I would imagine he is in hot water himself

Yep I gues buck stops with the ref... but you'd have to be an incredibly bold ref to rule a goal out when you're a bit unsure what's going on and a linesman who's older and moer experienced than you are is adamant a goal has been scored... I don't know.

[readingbedding]

Rubbish.

Officials make mistakes, so do players.
Get on with it.

[Billy The Fish]

Disappointed with coppell today, we might not have gone against the rules of the game, but we went against the spirit.
There is no way we should have accepted that as a goal, once it was given and we had a chance to discuss the incident at half time we should of walked the ball into our own net. It was a real scrubby move to play on as if nothing had happened.
I know we are a terrible team away from home but we were scraping the bottom of the barrel. Its not as if it was a " you win some you lose some" goal, it was NEVER a goal in a million years and we were awarded a goal out of nowhere. There wasn't even a decision to be made, the manager, players and club should be ashamed of themselves tonight.

Thinking about this now in the cold light of day, I completely agree with FiNeRaIn.

We have missed a huge opportunity to "do the right thing", and Harper should have been the one to take the decision or to at least go over to Coppell to discuss.

Funnily enough in his interview Coppell makes a Cricket analogy saying if you get a nick and are caught behind but the ump doesn't see/hear it, do you walk? Er, yes!

Had we let Watford walk in a goal from the restart we would have bought ourselves absolutely millions of brownie points for the rest of the season (with officialdom as well as every football fan in the country).

And I think we would have gone on and won the game yesterday as well.

[mattyougg]

Rubbish.

Officials make mistakes, so do players.
Get on with it.

^ What he said.

[Number 9]

It says on the OS that our players, led by Noel Hunt, celebrated the 'goal'. That would seem to be the embarrassing part for me.

[readingbedding]

Why are you 'embarassed'?

[RoyalBlue]

Disappointed with coppell today, we might not have gone against the rules of the game, but we went against the spirit.
There is no way we should have accepted that as a goal, once it was given and we had a chance to discuss the incident at half time we should of walked the ball into our own net. It was a real scrubby move to play on as if nothing had happened.
I know we are a terrible team away from home but we were scraping the bottom of the barrel. Its not as if it was a " you win some you lose some" goal, it was NEVER a goal in a million years and we were awarded a goal out of nowhere. There wasn't even a decision to be made, the manager, players and club should be ashamed of themselves tonight.

And just where do you draw the line? We get awarded a penalty that clearly isn't and deliberately miss? (maybe that's what we've been doing?!). We score the penalty then find out at half-time that it shouldn't have been awarded and then walk the ball into our own net in the second half?!

The days of the sort of conduct you advocate have long since disappeared from professional sport (if they ever existed). Had we done what you advocate we might have had some nice press headlines but little else, in fact I suspect the majority of supporters would have mocked us.

No doubt we will have some really awful decisions go against us this season and some will lead to goals that should not have been awarded. What goes around, comes around and we will get no sympathy from other teams and their supporters.

BTW, as usually happens in such situations, the awful mistake by the officials fired up and motivated what had up until then been a pretty lifeless Watford side and support and vey nearly helped them onto three points.

Disappointed with coppell today, we might not have gone against the rules of the game, but we went against the spirit.
There is no way we should have accepted that as a goal, once it was given and we had a chance to discuss the incident at half time we should of walked the ball into our own net. It was a real scrubby move to play on as if nothing had happened.
I know we are a terrible team away from home but we were scraping the bottom of the barrel. Its not as if it was a " you win some you lose some" goal, it was NEVER a goal in a million years and we were awarded a goal out of nowhere. There wasn't even a decision to be made, the manager, players and club should be ashamed of themselves tonight.

Thinking about this now in the cold light of day, I completely agree with FiNeRaIn.

We have missed a huge opportunity to "do the right thing", and Harper should have been the one to take the decision or to at least go over to Coppell to discuss.

Funnily enough in his interview Coppell makes a Cricket analogy saying if you get a nick and are caught behind but the ump doesn't see/hear it, do you walk? Er, yes!

Oh come off it!! How often do you see that happen in professional cricket in the 21st Century?!!

[readingbedding]

Disappointed with coppell today, we might not have gone against the rules of the game, but we went against the spirit.
There is no way we should have accepted that as a goal, once it was given and we had a chance to discuss the incident at half time we should of walked the ball into our own net. It was a real scrubby move to play on as if nothing had happened.
I know we are a terrible team away from home but we were scraping the bottom of the barrel. Its not as if it was a " you win some you lose some" goal, it was NEVER a goal in a million years and we were awarded a goal out of nowhere. There wasn't even a decision to be made, the manager, players and club should be ashamed of themselves tonight.

Thinking about this now in the cold light of day, I completely agree with FiNeRaIn.

We have missed a huge opportunity to "do the right thing", and Harper should have been the one to take the decision or to at least go over to Coppell to discuss.

Funnily enough in his interview Coppell makes a Cricket analogy saying if you get a nick and are caught behind but the ump doesn't see/hear it, do you walk? Er, yes!

Had we let Watford walk in a goal from the restart we would have bought ourselves absolutely millions of brownie points for the rest of the season (with officialdom as well as every football fan in the country).

And I think we would have gone on and won the game yesterday as well.

I don't,
All this 'game in disrepute' bollox is an absolute joke.
Did Boothroyd chat to Coppell during half-time to ask him about 'squaring the score'?
Doubt it.

It's not a phuck about in a Park, it's a professional football match.

[chandog]

with the new respect the refs idea we should accept the officials decision and not take matters into our own hands
if coppell had told the players to score an own goal that would have shown no respect to the officials - even if they dont deserve it after that shambolic decision
i am sure no one involved with watford fc blame reading for not scoring an own goal but blame the officials for getting it so badly wrong

[Royal Lady]

The players hardly celebrated at all - they were as dumbfounded as the rest of us. I hardly think having a go at the players for semi-celebrating a goal that was given to them, although it wasn't actually a goal, is the most important thing here.

[earleyroyal]

Most of the times I've seen goals given back to the opposition are when one team gives it back to the keeper who misses it or similar. That was different to yesterday as the officials made a call that the goal should stand, unless we knew straight away that it wasn't a goal (because the officials said so, which would mean the goal hadn't been given ) then we had no reason to let them score. Otherwise we'd be taking the laws of the game into our own hands and then what if we're given a goal that we know hasn't crossed the line? What if we know we ran into touch in the build-up? You could also say that the goal changed the course of the game so letting Watford score would be unfair.

If the official came to Coppell at half-time and said 'it was four yards wide, do you mind letting them score', I'd hope that we would let them score. Yes officials make mistakes and so on but there's a line between, say, a goal that may or may not have crossed the line, a penalty that may or may not have been won by a dive and a goal that was 'four yards wide' (BBC). All the arguments which reason 'it was a valuable point, it's a professional match so get on with it' are crap, doubt any of those people would be saying that if the same thing had happened to us. It's still 22 men kicking a ball around and when something ridiculous like that happens, there would be no harm in letting Watford score. As Billy the Fish says, Coppell's analogy about nicking it and walking is stupid. This is more like finding a £20 note on the ground.

[1960]

Bad decisions are supposed to even themselves up. I doubt if Watford feel that towards us. A few seasons ago we played Watford at the Madstad and we scored a goal from a cut-back that was easily over the line before it was crossed. Everyboby knew it except the ref.

[RoyalBlue]

Had our promotion or relegation rested on the outcome of this match, how sporting would people have been feeling then? And how would we have reacted had we given Watford a goal back leading to us failing to be promoted or ending up relegated?

The game we followed ceased to be sporting when it became big business and the likes of Murdoch and Bosman had their input. If people want to see football played in a different spirit then I would suggest that they need to start watching the non-professional game.

No doubt we would have been bleating had the boot been on the other foot but we would have been no more right nor justified than the Watford fans.

[Wizard]

Disappointed with coppell today, we might not have gone against the rules of the game, but we went against the spirit.
There is no way we should have accepted that as a goal, once it was given and we had a chance to discuss the incident at half time we should of walked the ball into our own net. It was a real scrubby move to play on as if nothing had happened.
I know we are a terrible team away from home but we were scraping the bottom of the barrel. Its not as if it was a " you win some you lose some" goal, it was NEVER a goal in a million years and we were awarded a goal out of nowhere. There wasn't even a decision to be made, the manager, players and club should be ashamed of themselves tonight.

Thinking about this now in the cold light of day, I completely agree with FiNeRaIn.

We have missed a huge opportunity to "do the right thing", and Harper should have been the one to take the decision or to at least go over to Coppell to discuss.

Funnily enough in his interview Coppell makes a Cricket analogy saying if you get a nick and are caught behind but the ump doesn't see/hear it, do you walk? Er, yes!

Had we let Watford walk in a goal from the restart we would have bought ourselves absolutely millions of brownie points for the rest of the season (with officialdom as well as every football fan in the country).

And I think we would have gone on and won the game yesterday as well.

+2. Maybe we will give them a goal at the Mad Stad. If our home form is anything to go on, we should still go on to win the game.

[Number 9]

Why are you 'embarrassed'?

I didn't mean that I was personally embarrassed, but that it is generally embarrassing that professional football players would celebrate a 'goal' in those circumstances. Apologies if I phrased it badly.

The ref and linesman should be embarrassed about getting the decision wrong and the players should be embarrassed about celebrating a 'goal' that their team did not score or earn. I don't think anyone else needs to be embarrassed.