Blog: The offside rule. Discuss.

Does anyone actually understand the offside rule?

I pose the question after the linesman (sorry, Assistant Referee) made several decisions that prompted Bucks boss Rob Smith to have more than a few words with official Steve Copeland as Telford and Solihull Moors left the field at half time on Saturday.

The bee in Smith's bonnet was the offside rule. Half a dozen decisions went against his side in the opening half. At best they were questionable, at worst they showed even the match officials aren't exactly sure what the laws of the game state.

On one attack Brown jumped over the ball and allowed it to run on to Danny Carey-Bertram, who could not possibly have been offside.

But the flag went up. And with it was a little demonstration of why the decision was made. A sort of dance move indicating Brown had come back from an offside position.

That meant he was interfering with play – even though he hadn't touched the ball.

And to add insult the Solihull stopper Danny Crane took the indirect free kick about 15 yards further up the pitch.

But there were numerous other occasions when Solihull strikers were in offside positions, albeit away from the immediate action, but within five or six yards of the ball, and play was allowed to continue as they were judged to be not directly interfering with play.

And here is the grey area.

An attacker in an offside position will always be interfering with play as he will cause the defenders to hesitate therefore, by definition, interfering with their play.

It's pretty clear the whole thing needs clarifying. Perhaps introduce an offside line, as in Ice Hockey, at least that would leave everything clear cut. And, if I remember correctly, the line worked well in Subbuteo when I was a kid.

Either way those offside decisions were not the reason Telford failed to break down a determined Solihull Moors side. It was down to a lack of a cutting edge – Telford had almost all the play but never forced keeper Crane into a meaningful save.

It might have been different had Kevin O'Connor remained on the pitch – who was forced off at the interval – he looked by far the most creative player on the park and appeared the only one to have the cunning required to unlock the visiting defence.

It was two points dropped for Telford, who must hope results go their way on Tuesday night when a number of play-off contenders are in action, ahead of Saturday's trip to Hyde United.

By Alex James