Simplistically put

A player from the attacking side had clear possession of the ball and was moving towards the goal.
A defender - who was the wrong side of the ball - made contact with the attacker, which caused him to lose the advantage he had (of having the ball & moving towards the goal)

Morally, it is a pen.

If the teams / positions were reversed not a single one of us would be saying it wasn't.

Soft - mebbe
Part of the modern game - deffo
Annoying if you're on the receiving end - absolutely

But a pen.

Plus, of course, if Gibson had been the culprit then there would a long queue of experts lining up to tell us what a liability he is and how he should be dropped & dropped to the U21s.

Posted By: Henclrikus, Aug 13, 10:44:15