Early days, but form so far would get is 76 points.
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Early days, but form so far would get is 76 points.
Having watched back a few times, I think the ref got both calls right.
For the first, it's hard to see precisely but for me Jatta looks in line with the defence when the ball is played. Hard to say for sure from the angle on TV, but looks close enough for the benefit of the doubt. Grant is in an offside position but isn't obviously interfering with play - he's not obviously being marked or acting as a distraction, and he makes no effort at all to play the ball.
For the second, the EFL have been clear this season that playing the ball onto the player's own arm is a mitigating factor for handball. To me, from the video shown, it looks very much like the ball goes from chest to arm (to other arm maybe), and his arms are more or less where you'd expect them to be for the position he's getting into, so no handball.
Both of these are marginal calls and we'd likely be pissed if they'd gone against us, but I think the ref probably got both calls right.
It wasn't obvious to me it was arm to ball. Looked a lot more like ball to arm.
Don't get me wrong, you've seen fouls given for less. And I am assuming the referee and/or lino saw it and didn't think it was an infringement, rather than didn't see it (if not, how??).
We got lucky with a few officials decisions, its probably about time we had some luck in that department. It does not detract from the fact that it was a great team performance and a well deserved victory that is hopefully a kickstart to better things.
There is no ball to hand excuse for an attacking player
"Defending players are subject to all the previously discussed laws, attacking players are not. Instead, the rule is very simple for an attacking player — if the ball strikes a goal scorer's arm while in the midst of a goal scoring move, regardless of arm position, intent, or any other qualifiers, a goal shall be chalked off."
As Pedro says, about time we got the benefit of some bad decisions. Jatta looks offside (but was probably level with the player behind him immediately after the ball was kicked so if the linesman couldn't see?) And DC handled the ball after it came off his chest (and was it handball when he controlled the ball onto his chest?) Anyway as mentioned, we won! YouPies.
If the scoreline was reversed, i.e. we had lost 1-4, some would be complaining how crap we were, letting in 4 goals.