Crystal Palace bid for replay rejected

The Football League have turned down a request from Crystal Palace to sanction a replay of Saturday's stormy clash between the Eagles and Bristol City.

A bitter war of words has broken out between the two clubs after referee Rob Shoebridge failed to award a goal to Palace striker Freddie Sears, even though his shot clearly bounced out of the back of the net before City went on to record a 1-0 win.

The refusal of Bristol City's players, or their manager Gary Johnson, to alert the official to his error prompted Palace chairman Simon Jordan to brand them as cheats, while manager Neil Warnock has been equally stinging in his criticism.

Jordan and Warnock have put since forward their claim for the game to be replayed but, as was expected, the Football League have ruled out that option.

"The Football League cannot sanction the replaying of this fixture," said its chief operating officer Andy Williamson. "In any match, the referee's decision must be final, even in a case such as this where there has been an error of judgment.

"To do otherwise would be contrary to the laws of the game."

The league's decision comes on the day that the clubs have traded more insults, with City boss Gary Johnson claiming that the goal was not given because of "an infringement".

Referees' chief Keith Hackett appeared to have cleared up the matter when he said the Derbyshire official would not be appointed to another game for "a couple of weeks" and apologised to Palace for Shoebridge's error.

But Johnson believes that should not be the case as he was told by the match assessor present at Ashton Gate that the 'goal' was ruled for an offence in the box.

Speaking to talkSPORT, Johnson said: "I've made a few phone calls to find out exactly what happened so it stops all the speculation.

"I've spoken to the assessor of the game and at that actual incident, just after the ball went into the net, the linesman put his flag in to the air. The referee ran over to the linesman who was still standing with his flag in the air and obviously spoke to him.

"At this point nobody knew why the goal was not given. We all saw the ball hit the back of the net. Then the referee didn't give the goal so at the end we asked the referee why the goal wasn't given and he said 'for an infringement'.

"That doesn't make me a cheat, a liar or unsporting. That's what's in the report and I think he (Keith Hackett) needs to apologise to Bristol City fans, players and management now. They are the facts that will come out of the report of that event."

Johnson has also been backed up by his chairman, with Steve Lansdown telling the Bristol Evening Post that he has "little time" for Jordan and that he has found his comments "discourteous".