NO RUSSIAN LINESMAN REQUIRED...

Sunday, October 2 2011

Buckland Athletic...4
Newton Town Stripes...3

BUCKLAND came out on top in an end-to-end affair which a strong Town side will feel they should have taken something from.

With Harry off having trials for Barcelona, where he'd fit right in, Buckland shuffled the pack as Beck moved into the middle with Daniel coming in on the right.

An early injury to Jamie meant Hamish joined Declan in defence as Buckland set about trying to claim the points.

The game was marked by two controversial refereeing decisions with both sides being awarded goals the opposing sets of players were not convinced had crossed the line.

First, a long-range Town strike evaded the excellent Josh, struck the bar, rebounded off Josh's back and rolled towards the line.

The referee, who all right-thinking people agreed put in a faultless performance, was not going to award the goal, but then saw Buckland joint-manager Darren signalling that the ball had in fact gone in.

The goalnet camera shows the Town effort did not actually cross the line...

Just minutes later, Georgia grabbed her second of the game with a brilliant header, which clearly crossed the line despite Town protests.

...while there is clear photographic evidence that Georgia's header was a goal.

Buckland rode their luck at times, with Declan and Hamish dealing with Town's pressure admirably and Josh pulling off some great saves.

And eventually, the home side were able to stretch their lead, a defender turning Joey's corner into his own net before Declan's long throw resulted in another goal off the head of a Town player.

Joint manager Darren was delighted with the hard-fought win, but was severely critical of the referee as he joined calls for the Pioneer League authorities to introduce goal-line technology after the double controversy.

"It's ridiculous that we don't have it," he said. "I'd forgotten that I wasn't actually reffing, and seeing isn't my strongest point, so I can't believe the ref actually listened to me and gave the goal for Town. It was a particularly poor decision, I thought.

"If we had like some kind of laser beam going across the goal and some other kind of electronic wizardry rigged up, the ref wouldn't have had to rely on my dubious advice and the win might have been more comfortable. I'll see what I can organise for next week."

Buckland scorers: Georgia 2, 2OGs