Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor believes refereeing decisions even themselves out over the course of the season after a contentious Bunny Shaw strike in their Barclay’s Women’s Super League draw against Arsenal.
Shaw put the hosts 1-0 up in the 65th minute, only for Tobin Heath to equalise in added time to seal a point for the league leaders.
It was the build-up to Shaw’s strike from inside the box that dominated post match debate, with the ball deflecting off referee Abigail Byrne in the build up.
However Taylor believes the goal should have stood and that the decision might even things out after previous decisions this season had gone against them.
He said: “You would like to think it would even itself out, they all say that, and if that was the case that it did hit the referee I thought our build-up play for the goal was good.
“I thought Lucy (Bronze) hit a cross-field pass that definitely deflected off someone, potentially the referee. I don’t know, I’d have to see it again.
“Then after that the quality of (Lauren) Hemp into Bunny Shaw, it was a great goal.
“We have been on the wrong end of that this season on many occasions with refereeing decisions so it was nice, if that was the case that one went our way.”
Controversy aside, Arsenal’s late goal ended a winning run that had seen City catapult back into WSL title contention after a slow start to the season.
And Taylor admitted he was disappointed for his squad that they didn’t get the three points he felt they deserved.
“I was really disappointed for the girls. We worked so hard in the game and we had opportunities after going ahead to have increased that,” he said.
“I thought we should have had a penalty that wasn’t given, and I’m really gutted and disappointed for the girls because we deserved the win tonight with the quality that they showed at times - but this is football.”
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