Fulham 1 Tottenham 2:OFFSIDE DECISIONS will always be open to controversy because they are based on not only on the fact of a player standing in an offside position but the hypothesis of what he has to gain by being there.

For a long time match officials ducked the issue by pulling an attacker up even if he was picking his nose far away from the action but now the pendulum has swung so far the other way that a player is safe unless he actually touches the ball, reports David Lacey from Craven Cottage.

Goals are being allowed when two or three members of the attacking side have run past the last defender and must be distracting the goalkeeper’s attention but this is no longer deemed to be interfering with play. Only if one of them follows up to find the net from a rebound will the goal be disallowed.

On Saturday Fulham lost their unbeaten Premier League record to a goal which would never have stood under the old system of interpretation. Having taken the lead on the half-hour following a clever piece of play by Clint Dempsey, who held off two Tottenham defenders before squaring the ball across goal to leave Diomansy Kamara with a simple tap-in, Fulham were back level within a minute after Rafael van der Vaart’s chip against the crossbar had left Roman Pavlyuchenko with an equally straightforward chance. No arguments there but what followed just past the hour had Craven Cottage beside itself with frustration.

Following a Spurs corner the ball found its way to Tom Huddlestone, whose low shot from 25 yards skidded through a crowd of players and beat Mark Schwarzer into the left-hand corner of the net. Up went a linesman’s flag against William Gallas, who had been a fraction offside when the ball was struck. The referee, Mike Dean, looked like disallowing the goal but amid Tottenham protests went over to consult his assistant, Martin Yerby, before letting it stand, the two officials having agreed that, while Gallas had been near the ball, there had not been any contact.

The Fulham crowd loudly informed Dean that he did not know what he was doing. In fact he knew exactly what he was about and under the present circumstances had made the correct call.

Not that this spared him a finger-wagging from the Fulham manager, Mark Hughes, at the end of the match. “The goal should have been wiped out because Gallas is in an offside position as the ball is struck by Huddlestone,” said Hughes.

Guardian Service