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No room for ‘glaring’ errors in EPL - former referee Gallagher

Submitted by Andrew Slevison on Mon, 10/19/2009 - 23:57

Ex-referee Dermot Gallagher believes an error of the magnitude of the beach ball blunder should not occur in the English Premier League.

Gallagher speaks of the incident in the 5th minute of the Sunderland v Liverpool match on the weekend where Black Cat striker Darren Bent’s shot deflected off a beach ball that was lying on the pitch and into the back of the net.

The goal was the only one for the match, giving Sunderland a controversial win, but Gallagher believes it should never have happened in the first place.

"It was a glaring error and it's difficult to fathom,” said Gallagher.

"Even referees in local parks should know that if there is an outside agent on the pitch then you stop the game and restart it with a drop ball.

"When you set out as a referee you learn the laws of the game and everyone should know it.

"For it to happen at this level and in such a high-profile game is unbelievable. Any one of the four officials should have stepped in."

The Premier League has rejected the possibility to have the match replayed, meaning the result will stand with three points to Sunderland and none to Liverpool.

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Comments (4)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/20/2009 - 07:44.

probably about the same amount it costs to have the ref give free kicks and penalties to liverpool when gerrard dives.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/20/2009 - 07:17.

Another payoff in the EPL as usual. Wonder how much money it cost to have that goal allowed, LOL.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 10/20/2009 - 04:34.

i'm a rival fan and i agree that the goal shouldn't have been allowed, but asking for the match to be replayed is too much. it was a liverpool fan who threw the ball onto the pitch so why should sunderland players have to suffer by wasting their energy replaying the game? it would be unfair to indirectly punish sunderland as they weren't even remotely responsible for that beach ball being where it was. take your frustrations out on the ref and that idiotic fan.

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