Crystal Palace, Rob Shoebridge, Neil Warnock and the Goal That Never Was

(Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

In a Coca-Cola League Championship match at Ashton Gate, where Bristol City were playing host to Crystal Palace, the away side scored on 34 minutes through on-loan striker Freddie Sears.

Well, all the players, staff and 14,603 in attendance around the stadium presumed he had scored, as well as the millions of football followers who later saw replays of the goal on television.

But to referee Rob Shoebridge and his linesman, Sears' effort was not a goal, but instead a goal kick.

In reality, the ball had broken to Sears, on-loan from Premier League side West Ham, and the highly-rated youngster unleashed a venomous shot right into the bottom corner.

However, the problem was that the ball was unleashed too fast into the bottom corner, as it smacked against the stanchion inside the goal and bounced straight back out.

So while Sears and his teammates had broke away to celebrate, Shoebridge and his team of officials were left dumbfounded as they were caught by the illusion of the ball hitting a hoarding and bouncing back onto the pitch. Well, we'll never actually know what the officials were thinking, but that's probably the most logical explanation.

A perfectly good goal disallowed it was then. As you can tell, an incident like that isn't just going to quickly and quietly make it's way into the archives.

This farcical situation has drawn parallels with the "phantom goal" of last season, where the now infamous referee Stuart Atwell awarded a goal which in actual fact was meant to be a goal kick. Looks like the officials at Ashton Gate on Saturday thought they'd try it the other way round.

Of course, the managers also have had their say, none more so than the aggrieved Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock.

With his now famous quotes on the situation, the Palace manager said: "We can put a man on the moon, time serves of 100 miles per hour at Wimbledon, yet we cannot place a couple of sensors in a net to show when a goal has been scored."

"I feel sorry for the referee because he didn't get any help. But how can I mark him when he spoils an otherwise good display with a mistake of that importance?"

In his fit of rage, Warnock also decided to have a pop at his managerial counterpart, saying: "I thought [Bristol City manager] Gary Johnson and his players could have shown more sportsmanship because they knew it was a goal, like everyone else. But I'm 60-years-old and maybe I expect too much.

Perhaps in a bid to avoid a fine for his comments, Warnock tried to cool the situation with the referee: "We were cheated. And I'm not saying that against the referee because he didn't mean to get it wrong."

It's clear that Nicky Maynard's 89th minute winner for Bristol City didn't really do anything to cool the situation, and the hosts' manager Gary Johnson left to count his blessings.

The City boss said: "In Neil's position I would feel the same as he does. Sometimes as the away manager a big decision goes against you, the crowd get on your back and it's very hard to keep things under control.

"[Freddie Sears' 34th minute effort] was a goal of course, but I don't see what I could have done about it at the time. I had my own team to think about because we weren't playing well in the first half.

"Neil didn't want to shake my hand and that's up to him. I can't say I was surprised after what had happened, but it's one of those things."

So you could say, in conclusion, if one thing is for certain in this situation of monumental controversy, apart from the desperate need for goal-line technology, it's that football still has that win-at-all-costs attitude. And from this evidence, there's no suggestion of it ever dieing down.

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