Referees miss blatant Brisbane Roar handball for Wellington Phoenix penalty

The Wellington Phoenix have been denied a match-equalising penalty after officials missed a handball. Photo / Sky Sports

The Wellington Phoenix have been denied a match-equalising penalty after officials missed Brisbane Roar’s blatant handball in the box.

Despite the Phoenix’s record-breaking start to the A-League season winning four of their first six games, Sunday’s 2-1 defeat marks their third loss in four matches.

Though struggling to get a result out of last night’s match at all, Wellington felt robbed of a potential point in the 87th minute.

Needing a goal to equalise at the time, Macey Fraser delivered a desperate corner that American Isabel Cox got on the end of but her strike was blocked on the goal line by a Brisbane Roar defender’s arm.

Clearly showing the rule break in the replay neither the linesman nor the main referee picked it up.

It came after the new signing, Cox opened the scoring with her first goal for the Phoenix headering the ball from a Michaela Foster corner kick.

Before, the jubilation quickly ended when Phoenix goalkeeper Rylee Foster stumbled over a clearance that was quickly intercepted and finished by Australian forward Tameka Yallop. The Phoenix conceded again in the first play of the second half.

Despite failing to convert more goal-scoring opportunities and needing to address their away game woes, Phoenix head coach Paul Temple was reeling about the denied penalty post-match.

“It’s a clear handball,” Temple said, “it’s a pretty dead-set penalty, to be honest with you.

“The camera angle is very clear – it’s a handball on the line. It’s disappointing the officials don’t see it because you want them to be picking up things like that,” Temple said.

”It’s those moments like that where you’ve got to ask the question why is there VAR (video assistant referee) in the men’s league and not in the women’s league – because if that goes to VAR it’s a clear penalty.

”But it’s not all about that. You don’t want to be a coach that loses the game and blames the referees or one moment like that. It’s not all about that, they’re just factors. We’ve got to take responsibility for ourselves and improve on things ourselves and be better.”

Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME Sports team. She’s a keen footballer and has worked with the Alternative Commentary Collective and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a full-time journalist.