Jeff Petit Ex Premiership Assistant Referee explains Nani's GOAL!

In the late match at Old Trafford on Saturday (MUFC versus THFC) one of those incidents occurred.

If you haven�t seen it let me explain in simple terms what happened.

The Manchester United player Nani was heading into Tottenham�s penalty area with Kaboul of Spurs in close attendance.  There was a penalty shout as Nani went down in the 6 yard box to the side of the Tottenham goal.

The referee � Mark Clattenburg � indicated no foul and then Nani put his hand on the ball in a show of stupidity.  Gomes the Tottenham goalkeeper picked the ball up to kick it up field, at this point Mark was happy to allow play to continue.

It is more advantageous for the offended team to have the ball in the goalkeeper�s hands than have a free kick in the goal area, isn�t it?

Now Mark�s world would be a rosier place right now if Gomes hadn�t decided to have a go at Nani.  It would appear that because Gomes had a go at Nani he forgot that no whistle had been blown so some 10 yards up the field he put the ball down for a free kick and then realised he couldn�t pick the ball up again!

This is where the fun started!

Footballers being fine upstanding members of the Integrity Guild Nani decided to take advantage of Gomes lapse of concentration and put the ball into the goal.

In round terms John all hell breaks loose and Mark�s watch seems like its stopped!  We�ve all been there.

Subsequently Harry thinks Mark�s got it totally wrong because its deliberate handball and that must be a caution.  Bless him.

Kevin Keegan on the telecast actually says Mark has done everything correct but surely Mark could have applied common sense and disallowed the goal.  Bless him.

Knowing Mark I�m confident that he would have loved to help Gomes out but he had to ask the question: �what happens if I disallow the goal on a �common sense ruling� and then Tottenham go up the other end and equalise?�

If a similar incident happens to you I would suggest that the only thing you could do different to Mark is make a big play-on signal so that everyone knows what you�re about.

If you�re like me you�ll also be saying Thank God that happened to Mark and not to me and you�ll be learning from his experience.

Sometimes being a referee is a tough job. 

But if we wanted it to be easy we�d have opted to be an armchair critic who can sit in front of the television and spout off knowing that he�ll never put his head above the parapet.

Whilst Mark will be dejected about how the game ended yesterday he�s got to dust himself off and get back out there with his shoulders back and his head held high.  That�s my message to every referee who has had a setback.

Like you he wants his games to go well without incidents such as yesterdays.

Incidentally, I see that MOTD were on Clatt�s side stating that schoolboy mantra �Play to the whistle.�