When Is A Goal Not A Goal?

Well, I have never seen anything like it in my life. Manchester United v Spurs, 0-0, closing minutes of the game and Pedro Mendes decides he will "have a pop" from about forty yards. Carrol, the United 'keeper sees it coming from a long way off and catches it. Then drops it. It drops over the line, easily, by a metre, even more if you are a Spurs fan. Carrol clumsily scoops the ball out of the back of the net in an attempt to make some amend for the absolute howler he has just committed and play goes on. No goal. Cheering Spurs fans silenced when they realise that instead of celebrating being three minutes away from three points at Old Trafford they are sweating over a free kick towards their goal. Carrol looks embarrassed, something akin to a teenager being caught having a swift one off the wrist by his grandma. And so ensued the "video evidence uproar". In nearly thirty years of watching football I don't think I have ever seen a goal not given that was as blatant as that. I suspect many would agree that in terms of a refereeing error this was gargantuan Guinness Records stuff. When Mendes hit the ball the linesman, who was level with Mendes, checking for offside, started sprinting towards the goaline. He never made it. If he would have been able to make it then he should be included in the Olympic sprinting squad. If he can't see it then he can't give it. End of story but still the uproar. Would we have had the same uproar of an identical incident in a Barnet v Stevenage game. I doubt it. It seems to me that Sky analyse every single detail of every one of these dubious decisions for their own interests. There are shown every half hour on Sky Sports News. I could be wrong but I believe it is in Sky's interest to make more of these anomalies when they happen and try to influence public opinion in the "video referee" debate. It is in their interest for tv to become intrinsically linked with football because, as the biggest player in tv football, they will surely be in on the technological wave as it crashes across goal lines in the Premiership. I don't know where it will start or where it will all end but I believe it is coming.