Shrewsbury Town head coach Paul Hurst has called the decision to disallow his team’s late equaliser against Bristol Rovers as “extremely harsh” as Salop fell to a 1-0 defeat at the Mem on Tuesday night.
The visitors had squandered decent chances in the first half via former Rovers striker John Marquis and ex-Cheltenham Town forward George Lloyd with the Gas also having their fair share of good openings.
However, it was the hosts who broke the deadlock when Jamie Lindsay firmly drove a cutback from Shaq Forde into the back of the net early in the second half with the goal proving to be the decisive factor between the two teams.
Shrewsbury did think they had equalised though with a minute of normal time remaining when substitute Tom Bloxham volleyed the ball through a sea of bodies and into the back of the net. The visiting players celebrated but referee Scott Simpson immediately went over to his linesman to discuss the goal with Rovers goalkeeper Josh Griffiths leading the home complaints.
Although an official statement hasn’t been released explaining the decision, it appeared as though the goal was ruled out because Marquis was positioned offside while being in Griffiths’ line of sight.
On the decision, an aggrieved Hurst said, as quote by the Shropshire Star: “I think John is offside, as in, he is in an offside position.
“But I am probably in the same position as a lot of people. I do not understand the rules anymore.
“I have seen a goal for Man. City at the weekend. My opinion is that the goal should stand otherwise I think all you are going to do is get teams to put one near the keeper and all they are going to do is run out and say he is offside.
“So that was my personal view. John is 10 yards out maybe, I don’t see and I have seen a picture he is nowhere near. The ‘keeper almost apologised for not seeing it and not diving. It is a tough one to take.
“Clearly at the minute that is how our luck is going, and I have talked about luck, and people do not want to believe it. I think we have had a couple of recent examples that have gone against us.
“Is it even luck or is it decisions going against us? So from that in terms of that incident, I think it is extremely harsh.”