I must confess, myself & Shennachie sat I watched replay after replay, pressed pause & forwarded frame by frame etc. Neither of us could see how, MacDonald could have been onside & hence the assistant referee got it spot on.

With the help of the BBC online highlights, & using my digital enhancement software, I have managed to prove unequivocally that MacDonald was clearly offside. And, see if this turns into another TEST NEW PHOTOS thread, I will scream!

[img width=500 height=308]

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But which of our defenders is needing the fundamentals of the offside trap explained to him?

I believe it is the one who has been requested to return to Canada on more than one occasion!

I had ICT friendly filter fitted to my TV and it leaves you in no doubt as to the situation  :023:

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offside.jpg_thumb

Bit of luck Uncle Hastings was running the line and both dislike whinging diving Aussies. That reminds me, where is Viduka these days?

He's at Newcastle.

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This makes it a bit clearer.

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Brilliant!

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It is good to see solid evidence that he was offside as pointed out in the posts.  When they put the line across the field macdonald was one one side and the defender on the other clearly offside I don't understand why why the pundits ingnored their own technology, apart from the fact that it went against the old firm.

Just an add on Presserly rightly stayed on the pitch but should have got a yellow, the ball was going away from goal in macdonalds case he was heading straight for goal, odd thing about it he is acclaimed for his low centre of gravity and upper body strength, strange how the slightist off pushes can have him diving as if it was the 100m crawl, but I suppose that is the australians  for you always good swimmers.

As Bigman says here you can clearly see MacDonald was offside - YouTube

Roond ya Strachan!

My understanding of the "current" offside rule is that only an arm, leg or any part of the players torso has to be in line with the second last man for the player to be onside.  In other words if you draw the line up from the pitch and it passes through any part of both players then it's basically onside.

If that's right then I think it's undeniably onside...however, it's very close and as a linesman can't be looking in two places at the same time (at the point ball is hit and along the line of players) then it was one of those that could have gone either way and you'd be hard pushed to shoot the linesman whatever way he had given it.

Just checked and it would appear my understanding was wrong here is the "Law" as per the SFA website......

Offside Position

It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position.

A player is in an offside position if:

    * he is nearer to his opponents? goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent

A player is not in an offside position if:

    * he is in his own half of the field of play

      or

    * he is level with the second last opponent

      or

    * he is level with the last two opponents

Offence

A player in an offside position is only penalised if, at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team, he is, in the opinion of the referee, involved in active play by:

    * interfering with play

      or

    * interfering with an opponent

      or

    * gaining an advantage by being in that position

No Offence

There is no offside offence if a player receives the ball directly from:

    * a goal kick

      or

    * a throw-in

      or

    * a corner kick

Infringements/Sanctions

For any offside offence, the referee awards an indirect free kick to the opposing team to be taken from the place where the infringement occurred.*

International F.A. Board

Decision 1

In the definition of offside position, "nearer to his opponents' goal line" means that any part of his head, body or feet is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent.  The arms are not included in this definition.

Decision 2

The definitions of elements of involvement in active play are as follows:

    * Interfering with play means playing or touching the ball passed or touched by a team-mate.

    * Interfering with an opponent means preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent's line of vision or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent.

    * Gaining an advantage by being in that position means playing a ball that rebounds to him off a goal-post or the crossbar having been in an offside position or playing the ball that rebounds to him off an opponent having been in an offside position.

Just checked and it would appear my understanding was wrong here is the "Law" as per the SFA website......

Offside Position

It is not an offence in itself to be in an offside position.

A player is in an offside position if:

    * he is nearer to his opponents? goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent

A player is not in an offside position....

an advantage by being in that position means playing a ball that rebounds to him off a goal-post or the crossbar having been in an offside position or playing the ball that rebounds to him off an opponent having been in an offside position.

Offside it was then, Don .

I was disappointed that Dean did not get a game. Two McDonald's on the park and neither Scots.