Such is the modern way, the football season kicked off in the height of the summer and things certainly got heated from a Pagham perspective late on at Victoria Park on Saturday as they were pushing for an equaliser, and you could not really blame them.
The ‘out off the cush’ is a rare occurrence, but one that has happened before at Guernsey’s new home of football, and the visitors fell victim to it in the 84th minute as a shot across goal from an angle left Josh Addison rooted to the spot, but the ball hit the padding surrounding the wheel on the framework of the goal, which is inside of the post, and rebounded out.
The Pagham players and coaching staff appealed vociferously to the officials that it had gone in, but play continued and the Green Lions retained their one-goal advantage.
The fact that the home side went on to score twice in injury time just rubbed salt into the Pagham wounds and after the final whistle several of their players were in discussion with GFC manager Tony Vance, who empathised with their predicament, but revealed that a vagary of the goal’s design meant that the whole ball cannot have crossed the line.
‘Obviously, they’re going to be frustrated, and I get it – we’ve seen it before,’ he said.
‘I was trying share their frustration, but ultimately what I was trying to say was the I’ve seen this before and we look at it in training, the ball physically can’t go in on a certain angle – and that’s the point.
‘As wrong as it is, the referees, and I was just chatting to them, are admitting that the laws of the game means if the ball doesn’t go over the line, they can’t give it.
‘Now it’s not right, because if those pads weren’t there, the ball would have gone in. It’s kind of like effectively if someone shoves a jumper on the goalpost.
‘And let’s flip it around – why did their goalkeeper have his water bottle on the goal line at the start of the game? He’s obviously trying to do that to stop the ball going in the back of the net.
‘So at the end of the day, the laws are the ball has to go over the line, and I don’t think it did, which is really harsh on them because it should have been a goal. And that’s what I was trying to explain.’
That moment of controversy certainly added to the excitement of what was otherwise a relatively scrappy game with some understandable rustiness on both sides.
There was little of note in the opening quarter, although Addison had to make one save to push away a tame Harry Giles effort, but after the first half reached its midway point, GFC became more of a threat with Will Fazakerley being at the heart of most moves.
He teed up Charlton Gauvain for a shot, but the captain miscued his effort as the ball was slightly behind him, and moments later Fazakerley’s own drive towards goal was blocked by Mike Gilchrist.
On the half-hour, though, GFC had the golden chance to break the deadlock when Fazakerley was tripped in the area as he demonstrated neat footwork in a tight space having received the ball from Niall Hainsworth and he got up to slot home the spot kick.
The scorer went close with a couple more attempts from distance before the interval, but GFC went into half-time with just the one-goal lead.
Pagham had a chance to level things up early in the second half, but David Crouch opted to try and beat Addison from a tight angle, which he failed to do, rather than look for the supporting run of an unmarked Jamie Horncastle, much to the midfielder’s chagrin.
Soon after making that save, Addison nearly turned provider himself as his long diagonal ball from the halfway line picked out Fazakerley, but the big man’s header drifted just the wrong side of the post.
In a busy period for the home goalkeeper, he had to parry away a firm strike from Kaleem Haitham on 52min.
However, the Green Lions then took control of proceedings for much of the second half and had decent chances to extend their lead but Sam Murray, Fazakerley and Cal Le Lacheur all either missed the target or had their shots blocked.
Their profligacy should have cost them, but the ‘issue’ with the padding went in their favour and a minute later GFC managed to scramble the ball clear having made a goal-line block at a corner.
When seven minutes of added time were announced, there were a few anxious groans among the Victoria Park faithful – who numbered 666 on opening day – but their mood soon lifted when substitute George Goubert was found by Addison and he slipped a delightful pass through to Fazakerley, whose sublime dink over the out-rushing Connor Millar was measured to perfection.
Just after Fazakerley had been announced as player of the match, Murray sewed up the victory as he rose high to head home Gauvain’s corner at the back post in the 99th minute.
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