An image from the most recent Southampton game suggests that the officials may have made a key mistake by missing a clear offside for Che Adams’ first goal on Tuesday evening.
The Saints’ pause from football over the winter period for the World Cup came to an end earlier this week as they took on Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup.
The League One outfit took a shock early lead through an own goal from goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, but Adams managed to score twice to spare new manager Nathan Jones from embarrassment in the 2-1 victory.
However, an image from the game suggests that Southampton and their striker may well have been lucky to be handed the equalising goal. Indeed, Adams looks to be in an offside position when the ball is crossed to him.
TIF Thoughts on the goal and Southampton…
Rather fortunately for the Saints, there was no VAR in use for this match, so the on-field call from the officials was the final decision on the incident and could not be reviewed.
However, as the image shows, Adams certainly looks to be ahead of the last Lincoln defender, so it seems as though the goal would have been ruled out had it been checked.
The match report from Sky Sports certainly seemed to think so. Indeed, it was written that the travelling team will be going home ‘feeling ‘aggrieved as replays suggested Adams’ 25th-minute equaliser was offside’.