So, I had a game today, home team were 1-0 up towards the start of the 2nd half and then the away team got a corner - with previous assessors advice to vary my position in mind, I've taken up a position on the edge of the D on the same side (LB side) as the corner taker. The ball is swung in towards the far post, a number of players jump towards the ball and the away team's big defender gets the ball in the net. And all hell broke loose, with 5 of the home team's players immediately sprinting towards me, "suggesting" that the ball had been put in by the away team player's hand.
Obviously I didn't see this and so as far as I'm concerned, there's no way I can disallow the goal - and eventually I had to caution for dissent one of the players that came towards me at that point, and another one a few minutes later who'd clearly lost his head over this incident. But something about the unity of the home team's reaction struck me - the reaction was immediate and all of them were claiming the exact same thing (along with the standard claims a few minutes later of "even they're saying it was handball!).
Looking back at it now, I'd bet money that it was a handball - but even with this strong suspicion, if I didn't see a handball, surely I'm right to let the goal stand? And given that this incident has happened, how am I supposed to regain match control after that?
Obviously I didn't see this and so as far as I'm concerned, there's no way I can disallow the goal - and eventually I had to caution for dissent one of the players that came towards me at that point, and another one a few minutes later who'd clearly lost his head over this incident. But something about the unity of the home team's reaction struck me - the reaction was immediate and all of them were claiming the exact same thing (along with the standard claims a few minutes later of "even they're saying it was handball!).
Looking back at it now, I'd bet money that it was a handball - but even with this strong suspicion, if I didn't see a handball, surely I'm right to let the goal stand? And given that this incident has happened, how am I supposed to regain match control after that?