Mike Dean shares what he’s been told about Sunderland v Derby County controversy
Mike Dean believes the officials were right to controversially disallow Sunderland ace Wilson Isidor’s goal against Derby County.
Isidor celebrated what he thought was the Black Cats’ second goal of the game on Tuesday (21 January), only for the referee to belatedly rule it out.
Sunderland went on to see out a 1-0 victory, in which one player really caught the eye, but the contentious refereeing decision dominated talk in the days after the match.
Giving his view live on Sky Sports News [25 January, 12:58pm], former Premier League referee Dean said: “It was the right decision. I’ve made some enquiries this week because I knew we were going to talk about it.
“When the ball is played down the middle, Isidor is offside I’m led to believe. He then comes back but he’s just not got back onside.
“I’m led to believe he was eight centimetres offside. Because he’s in an offside position, when he goes over to the player who scores the goal, he’s impacting play.
“The reason it took so long is because the Derby players wanted handball, so by the time the referee’s discussed that he’s able to focus on the offside.”
Sunderland robbed of second goal against Derby County
Quite how the linesman spotted Isidor was eight centimetres offside is anyone’s guess.
Anyway, the referee looked across to his linesman and there was no indication that anything was amiss, with the celebrations pretty much over by the time he did rule it out.
Ultimately it mattered little, with Eliezer Mayenda scoring what proved to be the only goal of the match just before the half-hour mark.
Had Derby found a leveller – or indeed won the game from a goal behind – this would have been talked about a lot more than it has been.
Regis Le Bris can instead turn focus to Saturday’s (25 January) home clash with lowly Plymouth Argyle, with that presenting another opportunity to keep pace with the automatic promotion chasers.
Fingers crossed for a controversy-free afternoon and all three points for the Mackems.
In other Sunderland news, the club must stand firm amid interest in one player.
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