Alan Pardew believes officials were wrong to disallow Damien Delaney effort

01 October 2016 12:38

Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew felt his side had been treated harshly by the match officials after the Eagles had a goal disallowed in debatable circumstances in their 1-1 draw at Everton.

Palace were left questioning the call from referee Jon Moss after his assistant's flag went up when Damien Delaney converted a second-half header from Joel Ward's cross, five minutes after Christian Benteke's equaliser for the visitors.

As Ward's delivery was made, Delaney appeared to be onside, with James Tomkins off but not really involved.

James McArthur, standing in front of goal, did appear offside as Delaney then headed it, but he did not touch the ball, and it was questionable whether his position or movement put off goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg.

Confusion reigned as Moss went over to his assistant to discuss the incident for a number of seconds, before deciding the effort should not be allowed.

Pardew later told Sky Sports 2: "I think we can feel harsh done by."

But he added in his post-match press conference: "I think it is a tough one for the linesman. He has two decisions to make.

"Firstly, is Damo (Delaney) offside? And he did actually say to me that is what he thought the problem was, that Damo was offside. He wasn't.

"Then Macca (McArthur) has run across the line of the ball, in front of the goalie. But I think it's going in anyway, and I don't think Macca has done anything to the goalie there to put him off. So it is a tough one.

"I can accept (it) - we make mistakes. I haven't got a massive problem.

"I have had goals not given that were a yard onside, and this was very, very tight.

"I am just pleased with our performance. It was a really good push in the second half to turn around the deficit against a good Everton side."

Benteke's goal, a fine header in the 50th minute, cancelled out Romelu Lukaku's excellent 35th-minute free-kick, awarded when Delaney lunged with a high foot towards Phil Jagielka just outside the area.

That proved another contentious incident, with Jagielka having handled the ball but appearing only to have done so while trying to avoid the boot of Delaney.

There was also some debate about whether the free-kick, swept straight over the wall and in by Lukaku, should have been indirect, while Pardew argued Delaney's challenge did not merit being punished.

"I was a little bit disappointed with that call because he (Jagielka) has ducked his head, and Damo's gone for an honest attack on the ball," Pardew said.

"But I'm not going to moan - I was really pleased with the performance and I thought Everton were very good as well. Hopefully both of us can push for Europe - that would be really great."

The result left Palace, who had won their previous three league games, seventh in the table, while Everton moved up from fifth to third.

Their boss Ronald Koeman admitted his team may have got lucky with the Delaney effort being ruled out, and praised the Toffees for their efforts overall.

The Dutchman said: "I think we did well. Of course, if you play at home and are 1-0 up, you expect to win the game but you have to be realistic.

"They made it very difficult and it was a great goal by Benteke.

"We had maybe the best chance in the second half with Idrissa Gueye (whose shot was blocked by Martin Kelly just after Benteke's equaliser) and maybe some luck with the decision of offside for the 2-1.

"Finally, I think it was a fair result. I am happy with the team performance. In the first half the final pass was not there to score the second one but we did a good job."

Source: PA