It’s All Over
‘FOR almost 40 years, we have pored over TV replays and still pictures trying to work out whether Geoff Hursts second goal in the 1966 World Cup final actually crossed the line.
| Like many of us, the referee refused to believe Spurs scored at Old Trafford |
But you dont have to be a Russian linesman to know whether the ball crossed the line at Old Trafford last night for what would have been a winning goal for Spurs.
All you need is a very long tape measure to calculate exactly by how much the ball was over the line before Manchester United keeper Roy Carroll scooped it out of his net.
The Telegraph, which includes a picture of the goal on the front of its sports pages, estimates that it was at least a metre.
But amazingly that wasnt enough for the officials linesman Ray Lewis and referee Mark Clattenburg apparently didnt see the incident which followed a terrible mistake by Carroll.
Unsurprisingly, Spurs boss Martin Jol was furious.
It was not just a couple of centimetres over the line, he said. It was a metre. Its a disgrace. We feel robbed.
More surprisingly, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson agreed.
Technology should be used, he said, and we could start off with the goal-line thing.
However, lose or draw Manchester United look to be out of the race for the Premiership title with Chelsea now enjoying an 11-point lead over then and a seven-point lead over Arsenal.
Nor does there appear to be any way back for Englands cricketers who have started off 2005 as poorly as they so brilliantly went through 2004.
The batting collapsed for the second time in a week, with England being bowled out for a lamentable 163 on what still looks like a decent track.
And the bowling didnt fare a whole lot better as South Africa chose not to enforce the follow-on and built up a lead of 462 runs by the end of the day.
The Times thinks it sees an element of safety-first in the decision not to put England back in but the result is likely to be the same.
As it says, five sessions on a dry pitch should be ample for South Africa to take the 10 wickets needed for victory.
While Ashley Giles explains the two collapses to the Guardian as were not doing something right, Geoff Boycott is rather more forthright in the Telegraph.
It was like watching lemmings leaping over the cliff edge, he says.
Or not quite over the cliff edge, as they say at Old Trafford…’
Posted: 5th, January 2005 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
