PeteUSA
Very well known Exeweb poster
Fair enough Bill, that sums up how things went down perfectly adaquately.Judging by the berating the Cambridge goalkeeper gave the guilty defender after the penalty was awarded, I imagine he was asking the same question!
I have to say that at the time I thought it was a penalty but it was along way from the BB where I was standing. But in all fairness to both sides of this argument, this all seems to come about from the question of what is an unnatural hand position, for most examples you see it appears to be that only when your arms are down tucked in to your sides, but as many players, pundits and fans have pointed out, you can't jump without raising your arms or turn without putting an arm out for balance and in general unless you're a soldier standing to attention, arms by your sides is a far more unnatural position.
This is an impossible call for refs in reality and I still say that a penalty should be awarded if the defending team gains an advantage from a hand ball regardless of whether it was intensional or not. That may seem unlucky or even unfair but its no more unlucky or unfair than it is for the attacking team losing their advantage and IMO the benefit should always be in favour of the attacking team.