The Ref Stop

Middlesbrough vs West Bromwich Albion

P

Peter Grove

RefChat Addict
The picture below shows part of the scenario for a potential problem with Middlesbrough's first goal.

The scorer Lankshear looked to be clearly in an offside position when his team mate Whittaker took a shot. The ball came back off the post, hit the goalkeeper on the back of the head (or shoulder) and popped up into the air for Lankshear to head it home.

The AR appears to be well positioned but did not flag for an offside offence when Lankshear headed the ball in.

Screenshot_20260830-162300~2.jpg

Some Boro fans in online discussions are suggesting the AR decided the touch off the back of the keeper negated the offside offence but to me the keeper has not deliberately played the ball.

Am I missing something or has the AR just got this wrong?

The entire incident can be seen from 3:13 in the clip below.

 
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The Ref Stop
Yeah. He has missed it. He had to make two consecutive offside decisions in quick succession. He got the first one right but got the second one wrong. The second one was the harder of the two because of rebound but you'd expect an AR at that level to get it. I think he just didn't switch his focus into the 'new decision' quick enough.
 
Just a concentration issue, looks as if the assistant has turned his head to look directly at the ball.

The ball is a bit blurry so might not be exact kick point so maybe not as far offside as it appears here.
 
The image is more or less correct, Sky froze it at the exact moment and he was a long way off. Given how well placed the AR is, and appears to be looking straight at it, I do wonder if he hasn't deemed the touch by the keeper as a save on the basis the ball was going away from goal. And didn't deem it a deflection on the basis it had already deflected off the post, so has decided that offside has been reset. Just a guess though, could be a lapse of concentration but it would be a very bad one given how obviously offside he was.
 
I actualy think a lapse of concentration in a convoluted pattern is less bad than deciding the ball bouncing off the keeper in that context reset OS . . . And if that was the decision, it's on the ref as well, as that should have warranted at least a brief discussion over the coms.
 
socal lurker said:
I actualy think a lapse of concentration in a convoluted pattern is less bad than deciding the ball bouncing off the keeper in that context reset OS . . . And if that was the decision, it's on the ref as well, as that should have warranted at least a brief discussion over the coms.
Click to expand...
Perhaps they did have a brief discussion over comms? For all we know the AR could have been saying something like offside reset, I suspect not as he sets off running down the line pretty quickly, but who knows?
 
RustyRef said:
Perhaps they did have a brief discussion over comms? For all we know the AR could have been saying something like offside reset, I suspect not as he sets off running down the line pretty quickly, but who knows?
Click to expand...

I may not have been clear. My point was that if that was the call, the R also bears responsibility. If the AR told him he had an OS reset from the ball bouncing off the GK, the R absolutely should have rejected that and given the goal.

Taking it down a level (or several levels), if I had this in a game as R and I suspected the scorer had been OS at the time of the shot, I would go talk to my AR to make sure I knew what he saw and could make a final decision. (I don’t have the luxury of comms.)
 
RustyRef said:
Perhaps they did have a brief discussion over comms? For all we know the AR could have been saying something like offside reset, I suspect not as he sets off running down the line pretty quickly, but who knows?
Click to expand...
can’t see how they possibly could have because of how quick he runs off down the line.
Flash lag is a terrible thing to try and judge on these situations… and I think the AR here has probably overestimated it
 
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