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Tuesday, 16th March 2010

PNE goal debate rumbles on

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Published Date:
24 April 2009
The debate over who actually scored Preston's second goal in last week's 6-0 thrashing of Cardiff looks set to rumble on – at least in the dressing room.
It has been revealed that skipper Paul McKenna did have a legitimate claim to be on the scoresheet instead of Neil Mellor.

Had the 41st-minute strike been in the Premier League the matter would have been referred to the Dubious Goals Committee for a ruling.

But because there is no such Football League body, the issue is for the club itself.

And using guidelines which the DGC employ to adjudicate on deflections, McKenna looks to have a decent case.

Manager Alan Irvine chose to stay out of the argument, insisting the players sort it out.

But that may not be an easy matter, with both McKenna and Mellor claiming the strike after the match and opinion split among the media over who ought to get the credit – the skipper for his thunderbolt shot or the striker for the flick to finish it off.

Irvine said: "I don't know who it is going to go to and, to be fair, I'm not really bothered.

"I don't want anything to do with it. I'm not getting involved."

McKenna caught his first-time shot sweetly from more than 20 yards out, the ball deflecting off a defender and then off Mellor before hitting the back of the net.

From video footage McKenna's shot appears to be on target when it leaves his boot and that, according to the DGC rules, should have a big bearing on whose goal it is.

A Premier League spokesman said: "As a rule, if the initial attempt is goalbound it is credited to the player making the goal attempt.

"But if the deflection means that a wayward effort results in a goal it is attributed to the player who had the last definitive touch of the ball."

While TV pictures from the side of the pitch suggest the initial shot was goalbound, only a camera behind the net could say for definite.

North End employ a second unit at the back of the Bill Shankly Kop, and this could ultimately determine ownership of the goal.

McKenna, who was celebrating equalling Sir Tom Finney's appearance record for the club that day, would have loved to have marked the occasion with only his second goal of the season.

But the strike was eventually attributed to Mellor in the newspapers and on TV.

The skipper said: "Typical striker! But I suppose if he got the final touch, it's his."

The Dubious Goals Committee, made up of three ex-players or officials, sits three or four times a season to adjudicate on Premier League goal disputes.

The identity of committee members is a closely-guarded secret to protect the game's integrity and avoid attempts to influence panel members.

The DGC does not always come up with a popular decision, though, and one of the committee's most controversial rulings saw them award Peter Crouch his first Liverpool goal in 2005, even though his shot against Wigan took a heavy deflection, looped up in the air and was then dropped over the line by Latics keeper Mike Pollitt.

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  • Last Updated: 27 April 2009 7:51 AM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Preston
 
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Simonpne,

Gee Cross Hyde 26/04/2009 01:26:42
The last person to touch the ball scored it .unless the touch was unnoticeable with no deflection .if its deflected the goal is mellors . It looked like it was a double deflection from Mc kenna to a defender to mellor
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