Wycombe Wanderers were on the end of a controversial refereeing decision at Plough Lane on Saturday, which ultimately robbed them of a point late in the game.
The hosts started the game strongly, and opened the scoring 11 minutes in after a delightful free-kick from Steve Seddon was nodded home by Omar Bugiel.
They then doubled their advantage just over 20 minutes later, when Bugiel turned provider for the man who set up his goal, bullying Connor Taylor off the ball and sliding in Seddon who drilled it home.
Michael Duff gave his players a rocket at half-time, and it paid dividends when Ewan Henderson turned home Fred Onyedinma’s cross with a rather unorthodox finish to blow the contest wide open again.
The Wombles held firm, but it looked like their resistance had been broke right at the death, when a quick throw in was taken by Henderson, who unleashed Daniel Harvie in the box. He squared it to Bradley Fink, whose deflected shot beat Nathan Bishop, but was ruled out.
The first thought was that Dons defender, Joe Lewis, who had gone down with a chest injury in the box, was the reason the goal was disallowed, but this didn’t add up.
Play is only stopped for a head injury, which wasn’t the case with the Welshman. However, he was already on the deck before the throw was taken, which would usually see a break in play for him to receive treatment.
Due to the circumstances that Wycombe found themselves in though, they were allowed to take the throw quickly, and ended up scoring a perfectly good goal which should’ve stood.
But the officiating team had other ideas, and realising they’d probably made a mistake by allowing the throw to be taken, the linesman on the left-hand side of the pitch, who was 50-yards away from where the throw was taken, decided that the throw should’ve originally been for Wimbledon, and overruled Scott Jackson after the ball had been put in the net by Fink.
Duff was incandescent with rage on the touchline, berating the linesman for his decision, and rightly so, as this decision ended up costing his side the match.
The resumption of play came from the now Wimbledon throw, after Lewis had received treatment, and not a drop-ball, which would’ve been the case had the stoppage been for the injured player.
It seems like a classic case of the referee realising he’s made a mistake, and then being bailed out by something completely unrelated to cover himself. However, he and his team have ended up bringing even more controversy upon themselves with this decision
