Kosh wrote:The 'ball strip' penalty was a bad decision, but IIRC Smith would have seen it from behind the Rovers player and would not have seen how the ball ended up in his hands. It most likely looked like a strip from his POV.
If that was true I'd agree but if you watch on the replay Smith had gone behind the goal line to see if he got over the line and was in fact in the ideal position to give the call correctly which makes it more bizarre, add to that the linesman staring straight at Hick's foot in touch makes you wonder what the officials are actually looking at.
Wire fully deserved to win the match and had these decisions been called correctly they may have still won by a similar margin it's just galling when effort in defence is rewarded by being penalised.
The worst offence on the pitch was Lee 'Didier Drogba' Briers feigning a head shot and running to the ref calling for ten, that kind of behaviour has no place in the game.