CHRIS WISE Simon Charlton is almost certain to have Saturday's 'own goal' against Plymouth wiped from the record books - but he was still bristling with a sense of injustice as he reflected on the controversial incident.

CHRIS WISE

Simon Charlton is almost certain to have Saturday's 'own goal' against Plymouth wiped from the record books - but he was still bristling with a sense of injustice today as he reflected on the controversial incident.

The Norwich City midfielder was credited with Argyle's 24th minute opener at the weekend when a corner from Tony Capaldi appeared to clip him on the leg before finding the back of the net.

Charlton revealed today that he had never even got near the ball, and was pleased to hear that Plymouth had contacted the Football League to request that the goal be credited to striker Nick Chadwick.

But he was adamant that it should never have been awarded in the first place after a “blatant push” from home skipper Paul Wotton had prevented him from clearing his lines as the ball came across.

“It went down in the papers as Charlton own goal but I never even touched it,” he said.

“The corner came in and the guy who was behind me gave me a blatant two-armed push and not surprisingly I fell over. As I went down I tried to stick my leg out to get something on the ball but I missed it. In fact I wasn't anywhere near it.

“The ball went past me and I don't really know what happened after that because I had my face in the dirt. If I hadn't been busy at the weekend I would have emailed 'Goals on Sunday' and told them it wasn't an own goal!

“I had no idea it had been credited to me until after the match when my dad rang and told me. He had been following the scores on the television back home.”

As for the bigger issue, Charlton added: “Everyone was a bit stunned that the goal was given to be honest. All the lads were saying that they couldn't believe the referee hadn't blown his whistle because it was such a blatant push. If it hadn't been for the foul I would have cleared the ball without any problem at all.”

When the goal was shown on ITV on Sunday morning Wotton was out of camera shot as the corner was taken, but Argyle's own footage provided a better view of the incident, and clearly backed up Charlton's assertion that he had been bundled over as he attempted to clear.

The new pictures didn't prove conclusively that Chadwick had got the final touch - City defender Adam Drury was also in close proximity as the ball came across - but they certainly indicated he was the most likely scorer, and that should be enough to persuade the Football League to change their records.

Chadwick was happy to take the goal off Charlton, after managing just four so far this season.

"Obviously, it's my job to get across the near post and Tony put it into that area,” said the former Everton striker, who had one goal chalked off earlier in the season when a match was abandoned after he had opened the scoring.

"I thought their lad was going to clear it and I just managed to get in the way of him and, in doing that, the ball deflected off my shin, through my legs and crept over the line. Things like that weren't going for me when I first came here and I'm glad they are going for me now."