Boro full-back disappointed by officials’ decision not to award him an equaliser

SCOTT Laird said he was certain he should have been awarded a goal after seeing his first half effort cleared off the line against Northampton Town on Saturday.

Laird flicked on Josh Walker’s corner at the near post with his side trailing to Ryan Gilligan’s early goal, and although the ball crossed the line before Liam Davis’ clearance the officials failed to give the decision and the Cobblers went on to take all three points.

“I heard that someone had a still photo of it,” said Laird, who put his hand up in celebration following his shot before realising the decision had gone against him.

“I certainly thought it was a goal after I hit it as I was in line with it.

“It’s disappointing because we work on set pieces a lot, and set pieces are a big part of winning games and count for a large percentage of goals through the season but it wasn’t given, we have to get on with it and it’s going to read ‘nil’ in the paper.”

Boro were reduced to 10 men on 51 minutes when half time substitute Darius Charles was shown a red card for a challenge on John Johnson.

Stevenage more than matched their opponents for the remainder of the game without being able to find the equaliser but Laird believes his teammate was hard done by.

“If he didn’t go into that challenge wholeheartedly he would have hurt himself,” Laird said of Charles’ tackle.

“He was fouled two or three times before that in the build-up and I thought the decision was harsh.”