FANS of Oxford City FC have been left stunned after rivals Chippenham Town were awarded a controversial late penalty.
And The Hoops shared a clip of the penalty on their social media to highlight the refereeing call.
A poor header back towards goal was latched onto by a Chippenham attacker, who then proceeded to lob the ball over the goalkeeper.
But a defender managed to make a heroic sliding clearance off the line to prevent a goal, taking the onrushing attacker out with it.
However, City were left perplexed when a penalty was awarded against them for a seemingly clean tackle.
Jordan Young subsequently converted the 98th-minute penalty to hand Oxford their second defeat on the spin in the National League South.
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Oxford manager Ross Jenkins was also critical of the decision on Oxford City’s YouTube channel.
He said: “Yeah it wasn’t just out angle, it was the whole stadium’s angle. It was all sides of the stadium that saw it wasn’t a penalty.
“It was an error from us to head it backwards, we accept that, but then we’ve done so well to recover and clear it off the line.
“You can clearly see our player has nicked the ball first and their players followed through and gone over the top of him.
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“I’m not quite sure what the referee saw, but it’s not good enough because it’s cost us points tonight… it’s really disappointing and a big error on the ref’s part.”
Fans on social media echoed this sentiment.
One user said: “No pen, great defending,” while a second described it as: “shocking.”
Another added: “If that is a penalty I’m a polar bear.”
Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey even weighed in on the debate.
He said: “Imo (in my opinion) no one would have complained if the referee had just played on.”
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It comes amid a weekend of controversial decisions in the Premier League despite the assistance of VAR.
Referee governing body PGMOL even admitted decisions which went against West Ham and Newcastle in their respective games against Chelsea and Crystal Palace would be reviewed after heavy criticism.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
