1970-71 Astle's goal at Leeds

The infamous goal. Nothing wrong with it. Brown takes it on himself after he intercepts the ball. Terrible commentary from Barry Davies, should have been sacked.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• West Bromwich Albion
• Leeds
• Astle
• offside
• soccer
• brawl
• Barry Davies

[holmleighnyd]

No mate, sorry you're wrong. Brown took the ball on himself, didn't pass it to any other player, Suggett was offside and would have been called so if Brown had passed it forward. No infringement of the offside law occurred. The problem arose because the linesman, wrongly, thought Brown had passed to another player.

[Gombeboy]

This was before the 'interfering with play' aspect of the offside rule. Would definitely count nowadays, but back then it probably would have been given.

[pabloalarroyo]

@ringlord2000 Wrong!! sorry to say mate I too served as a ref for some time and the law has remained quite the same always, a player is not offside unless taking part in the play, the refs call in this case is 100% correct

[ringlord2000]

@holmleighnyd, Davies was commentating on the match during this time, when, as mentioned, the interpretation was different. In his eyes, in those days (not now), there was an offside infringement which Mr Tinkler should have acted upon, and Davies recognised this. Davies has always been a tad "theatrical" - that'd be a different criticism! BTW, I served ten years as a ref 1993 to 2003, and we were forever getting told how we should interpret this law and that law for the coming seasons. A pain.

[ringlord2000]

Offside rule has never changed, except for minor experiments in the "Watney Cup" of the 1970s. What HAS changed is the interpretation of "interfering with play; seeking to gain an advantage by being in an offside position". Suggett was clearly "seeking to gain an advantage" when he occupied that offside position. In the interpretation of the Laws of the time, Suggett should have been given offside and the goal disallowed. Today, emphasis is on "interfering", not "seeking to gain an advantage".

[projectnips]

well i suppose people can have their own opinion`s on it,but i think any team would have gone mad had this been given against them,the offside rule was different in those days that also needs to be taken into account tho.

[RupeWard]

Astle was behind the ball when it was passed to him. But the offside claim is nothing to do with Astle. It's Suggett, the player who was clearly in an offside position when Brown played the ball forward into the Leeds half and chased it.

But being in an offside position is not an offence. The ball wasn't passed forward so the ref was right to allow play on.

[projectnips]

when brown passes the ball astle is in front of the defender

[MrBCAFC]

Where was the offside though?