Ten Of The All-Time Worst Refereeing Decisions To Go Against Lincoln City

8: FA Trophy Handball

A week after Arsenal had ended our FA Cup run with a rather conclusive 5-0 quarter-final victory, York City arrived at Sincil Bank on 18 March 2017 with another route to Wembley still open. We had never played there, and Sean Raggett’s 65th-minute header wiped out York’s 2-1 first-leg advantage, gifted by a howler from Ross Etheridge, to leave the FA Trophy semi-final level at 2-2 on aggregate.

York were en route to relegation, us to League Two, and this felt like a formality. We’d hammered them at their place in the league, and should have won in the first leg as well, and with a packed Sincil Bank, we felt like we were on a roll.

Sadly, the decisive controversy came at the end of the first period of extra time, when a low shot following a York corner was hammered against Luke Waterfall, who was already on the ground. Referee Ben Toner initially allowed play to continue, only to consult his assistant after York’s appeals and award a penalty for handball. It was a desperately harsh call against a grounded defender, with the chance of a first Wembley appearance hanging on the officials’ change of mind.

Scott Fenwick converted; the match finished 1-1 and York went through 3-2 on aggregate to face Macclesfield Town in the final. For a club still waiting for its first Wembley appearance, this carried a weight few refereeing decisions can match. In a season already overflowing with remarkable achievements, the chance to add another piece of club history had disappeared with one fiercely disputed penalty.