Wolves' goal was offside. No ifs or buts...
THERE'S no getting away from it, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake was off-side when he scored the winner for Wolves on Saturday.
Referee Steve Bennett's explanation that the striker's momentum had taken him off the pitch and therefore he didn't have to ask permission to go back on doesn't address the salient question, which was whether he was then off-side or not.
The fact is that when he re-entered the field of play, or sneaked back on to be more accurate, he was off-side, no question, and Mr Bennett and his assistant Ian Gosling, who failed to flag for the offence, got it wrong.
Even the expression on the player's face as he looked, expecting it to be ruled out, spoke volumes.
When asked for clarification afterwards, Bennett, who is a Premier League official, was perhaps covering the back of his assistant but what he should have done is gone over to consult him at the time and discuss it thoroughly before awarding a free kick to City.
There have been occasions when goals have been scored in similar circumstances, the most recent of which was during the European Championships when Ruud Van Nistelrooy opened the scoring in Holland's 3-0 win over Italy.
The striker appeared to be in an off-side position when he scored from close range but defender Christian Panucci had slid off the pitch and lay on the ground as the ball went into the back of the net.
Panucci was deemed still active in play and therefore playing him on-side.
There is nothing Coventry can do about it now, of course, and they have to live with the fact that they were denied a point from the game, but there must be some clarification on the matter to ensure it doesn't happen again.
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Sylvan Ebanks-Blake goal was onside and so was Chris Iwelumo's disallowed goal.
The score should have been 3-1. The reason why you lost is because you didn't take your chances & nothing to do with the offside rule!
Since we are discussing whether or not SEB's goal was offside or not, perhaps we should take a closer look at Iwelumo's disallowed goal. The same officials ignored the Coventry defender lying on the ground, playing the forward onside. With the benefit of a playback it is easy to get things right.
oh dear you look stupid now
True result - 3-1. You played well and created a few good chances-you did not take them-we did-end of story.
There will be other matches this season were you will have the same luck as us and win-but will you be moaning I doubt it.
True result
Wolves 2 - Coventry 1
Mifsud, Kightly, Iwelumo.
It looks like the ref did you a favour by disallowing Iwelumo, probably because of the earlier incident with Seb's goal.
This happens in football.
You had your chances and you didn't take them. Time to move on.
The positives - your improving and will probably reach the playoffs this year or go close.