"If it had been Robbie Keane in Henry's position would he have stopped and admit a handball to the ref after he just set up a goal to send his team to the world cup finals??


Its easy to take the moral highground when your the effected party, but the truth of the matter is it is the ref and linesman who are at fault here, not Henry. Anyone who plays football knows that you play to the whistle as the ref has the final say on any matter.


Anyone who turns on Henry in this situation is an idiot. Henry is always honest and a genuine role model in the game today. It was a handball and it should not have counted but it's not Henry's fault the ref allowed it.


We shouldn't fall into believing that just because it's a bigger nation, qualifying doesn't mean as much to them."

I'll just quote someone from a page on the matter of a person who I agree with. Problem with football is that people will bend the rules to win matches and if the officials miss it, then it's their fault. Truth is some refs do back the top teams, look at the domestic league with teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal, how many decisions do they get in their favour in comparison to teams like Burnley, Birmingham City and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

At the time, what did the media say about that penalty Ireland got against Ireland? Not making a point or anything; just asking.

Then, in the 73rd minute, Finnish ref Jouni Hyytia threw out a lifeline.

Keane contested a hopeful punt forward amid a posse of Georgian defenders, but lost out and the ball broke to Doyle who was challenged outside the area. To the crowd's surprise, Hyytia pointed to the spot and subsequently it appeared as though he had spotted a handball from Georgian right full Ucha Lobjanidze.

The call was highly dubious and the Georgian protests were understandably lengthy. Admirably, the Irish skipper kept his cool amid the din and finished stylishly. And Croker was alive.

"I didn't see anything in it," said Cuper afterwards. "I don't know if we lost three points because of the penalty, but we definitely lost one. We were very angry after the penalty and it affected us."

PENALTY!

72 mins: This is quite fun: the Georgians have no idea why a penalty has been awarded and nor does anyone else. Keane tried to control a long ball and failed and it was cleared and, um, the ref pointed to the spot! A startling decision. As I said in the preamble, it looks like luck is on our side in this campaign.

GOAL! Ireland 1-1 Georgia (Keane, pen, 73')

The ball was then cleared but only as far as Kevin Doyle as it deflected off the Waterford man and into the path of Ucha Lobjanidze. The referee then gave a shrill blast of his whistle for what appeared to be an offside by Keane.

Instead to everyones surprise, Hyytia pointed to the penalty spot and deemed Lobjanidze to have handled the ball. Replays showed that Keane had handled the ball in the lead-up to this decision and that Keane was also offside as play continued. However, most surprising it also showed that the Georgian's hand had gone nowhere near the football which had hit him if anywhere on his collarbone.

Regardless of what the referee had thought he had seen, Keane did not need to be asked twice and immediately set the ball down on the penalty spot. The Spurs and Irish captain dispatched it with ease and the scores were level.