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We always seem to be victim of the ex player scoring a crucial goal against us and I thought Saturday was lined up to be the next one of these matches with Wednesday's ex players. What a pleasant change for the ex player to give us a soft penalty in the final minutes. Will Vaulks is still a bluebird !!
Does anyone actually know what he was trying to do there? Had no idea in the ground from the other end what had happened… it seemed impossible to handle the ball from that situation.
I sit in the Grandstand and, without seeing any replays since then, here is my take…
The cross came in from the wing and the defender was in a decent position to head it away. I think the flight of the ball was one of those where it is a bit awkward for a defender… sort of in between being a bit low for a header and too high for kicking it clear. I would say it was one where you wouldn’t have reacted instinctively to do one or the other,
Maybe in the time it took for him to decide what to do, the ball was upon him, so his immediate instinctive reaction then, was to reach his arm out.
In the instant he put his arm out, and the ball strike it, I couldn’t believe what I just saw… and I was looking directly at it!
Usually if I don’t see an incident, I look at the linesman to see if his/her flag is up, but this time I focussed on the ref’s reaction… So full credit to him, he took a second or two, but judged it correctly.
In fairness, the linesman was flagging furiously immediately after Vaulks threw out his arm. I don't think the ref was best placed to see it, but the linesman's reaction will have left him in no doubt. It looked as clear as day from my vantage point up in the Ninian Stand and the linesman was right in line. Weird incident, there was no danger at all of a City player getting on the end of the cross, but it was bit of luck that was much-needed.
A few thousand refs in the ground made the decision instantly, one of the loudest, and in unison, shouts of ‘handball’ I’ve ever heard down the City. Made it simple for the ref, he must have though ‘Jeez, if that many saw it, it must be’.
I sit directly behind the line of the cross he dived towards the ball didn't know what was behind him so moved his arm towards the ball it was a clear penalty and the linesman on our side, the Ninian stand, flagged straight away.