Former top flight ref talks ‘nonsense’ over Ellis Simms’ goals against Sheffield Wednesday..
Coventry City comment from CoventryLive as Ellis Simms’ goal come under the spotlight by former top flight referee..
Keith Hackett has waded into the Ellis Simms debate, claiming that Coventry City’s winning goal at Hillsborough on Saturday should not have counted. What a load of old nonsense!
A top-flight official from the early 1990s and one time PGMOL chief, Hackett’s rationale was that because the Sky Blues striker’s earlier goal had been disallowed for a foul on Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper James Beadle, John Busby should also have chalked off the second.
“I think there’s a lack of consistency,” Sheffield-born Hackett told Football Insider. “They’re either both fouls or they’re not. For me I think that in both situations there was a justification to rule out both goals.
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“I always took a view as a referee that I wouldn’t find an excuse to rule the goal out. I prefer goals because that’s what people want to see and therefore, I’m not suggesting it had to be an act of murder, but if I was going to rule a goal out, I had to absolutely be 100%.
“In both cases, I feel that if you as the referee are going to rule one out, you rule both out. It highlights inconsistency for me.”
But surely every incident should be judged on its own merits. And if anything one could argue that Simms’s first effort should have stood given the fact that he was perfectly entitled to go for the 50/50 challenge once the keeper had spilled Jack Rudoni’s shot. Beadle was not in control of the ball at all – he managed to get one hand to it but he certainly didn’t have a firm glove on it before Simms slid in and sent it over the line.
The fact that the Owls’ on-loan stopper then clutched his head suggesting he’d been hurt in the process may well have influenced the referee, albeit he didn’t require treatment and immediately jumped to his feet and carried on with the game as soon as he realised the decision had gone in his favour.
As for the late winner, all credit to the Sky Blues number nine for gambling on Milan van Ewijk’s up-and-under kick that fell out of the sky and was promptly dropped by Beadle, with Simms then using his strength to out-muscle the player who, once again, was not in control of the ball.
So even if Hackett is right about the referee displaying a lack of consistency, there’s a very strong case for claiming that the Sky Blues scored three legitimate goals and were only credited with two. We all want consistency, but preferably consistently correct decisions.
