1 day Ago By [email protected] (Luke Cawdell)
Gillingham defender Sam Gale felt like he’d been robbed on Friday after his first-half goal was ruled out. The 20-year-old looked like he’d put the Gills 2-1 up in the League 2 game at Cheltenham, at the end of the first half, but referee Graham Scott disallowed it for handball. Report: Cheltenham 1 Gillingham 1 Gale was adamant he hadn’t handled the ball but Scott’s decision stood and he’ll have to wait another day for his first goal in the Football League.
“It's actually (hit) their player's hand and then I bundled it in,” said the defender. “I'm not going to say anything about the referee, but he's got it wrong. It's robbed me of my first professional goal.
” The Gills looked to have scored their second goal from a well-crafted free-kick after Jimmy-Jay Morgan scored one from an early set-piece move. Jack Nolan fed Max Clark out wide, he crossed in, Elliott Nevitt and the keeper went up for a challenge and when the chance dropped for Gale, he guided the ball in from just in front of the goal line, with a defender there for company. The Cheltenham player who came off second best to Gale instantly claimed handball and the referee agreed.
Gale said: “My eyes absolutely lit up and I thought ‘there's no way I can't bundle this in’ and I did. I can't believe the ref's given a handball. I've put it in with my body.
I feel robbed. The support for the #Gills at Cheltenham was described as “Championship standard” ⤵️ https://t.co/kaYYpgyf1y More: Striker on standby after goalie injury “I wasn’t happy about it,” Gale continued.
“I was raging at half-time but I just had to to forget about it. There was still a long way left in the game to try and get three points and we didn't quite get it. “I asked the referee coming in at half-time ‘who gave it?’ and he said ‘I've seen your hand hit the ball’.
I asked him politely, ‘How can you see that my hands hit it when you're behind me? “I could understand if the lino's given it. The lino hasn't given it and he's got the side on view. I said I didn't understand it, but I'm not going to say anything (more) because I'll get in trouble.
“For a second it felt very good and then I turned around and the ref had decided to take it off me. I'll keep playing and keep doing the right things and an opportunity will drop to me.”.
