Technology company Hawk-Eye have issued an apology to both Huddersfield Town and the EFL after the Terriers were denied what appeared to be a clear goal in their fixture against Blackpool on Sunday afternoon.

Danny Schofield's side went down 1-0 to the Seasiders at the John Smith's Stadium, continuing their poor start to the 2022-23 campaign, where they have amassed just four points from their opening seven matches.

Theo Corbeanu's first-half strike ended up being the difference between the two teams, but it looked as though Huddersfield should have made things all square in the second half.

A Sorba Thomas corner found its way to Yuta Nakayama in the six-yard box, and the Japan international looked to have bundled the ball over the line for an equaliser, despite the best efforts of Blackpool stopper Daniel Grimshaw to keep it out.

As Huddersfield's players wheeled away to celebrate though, referee John Busby carried on play, with the goal-line technology system not alerting him to the ball crossing the line.

Replays seemed to suggest that the whole of the ball quite clearly went over the line, and on Monday it was confirmed that the technology had failed to work correctly.

Hawk-Eye have now apologised to both the Football League and to the Terriers for the fault in their system as it denied them from getting back on level terms.

“Hawk-Eye can confirm that the ball was obscured from the goal-line technology tracking cameras as it moved over the line,” the company’s statement read, per an article from Yahoo.

“The position of the players, the goal post and the goalkeeper impacted the cameras’ line of sight to the moving ball and as such, a decision could not be determined by the system.”

We would like to reassure the football community that this was an exceptional edge-case occurrence, and we will continue to review standard operating procedures for such occurrence with the EFL and PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited),” the statement continued.

“Hawk-Eye has spoken to both the EFL and Huddersfield Town FC and would like to apologise unreservedly to both parties.”

The Verdict

It is too little, too late as far as Huddersfield are concerned for this to happen.

Danny Schofield's side were denied a clear goal by technology that is supposed to help the referees when it comes to goal decisions when the ball is only just over the line, and from the clips and stills it is clear to see the Terriers were robbed.

It is hard to fault the officials though considering their sight must have been blocked on both ends due to the amount of bodies in the way, and they would have assumed that there were no faults in the technology.

A similar situation occurred in the Premier League in 2020 when Sheffield United were denied a goal against Aston Villa due to an issue with the technology, and that was a goal that was perhaps crucial to Villa staying in the top flight that year.

An apology won't make Huddersfield feel better though as they were on the wrong side of a bad decision at the end of the day.