Suggestions Yusuf’s Maart’s wonder goal that settled Saturday’s Soweto derby for Kaizer Chiefs should have been disallowed because substitute Reeve Frosler encroached on the field are incorrect, says refereeing instructor Jerome Damon.

In a warning to substitutes warming up behind the goals in similar situations though, Damon said had Frosler timed his celebration run onto the field a split-second earlier, referee Victor Gomes and his assistants would have had to overrule Maart’s spectacular strike and award a free kick to Orlando Pirates.

Maart’s superb goal in the 74th minute was struck from inside his own half, near the centre circle, after he looked up to spot Bucs goalkeeper Siyabonga Mpontshane off his line.

Damon said supporters suggesting Frosler, who was warming up as an substitute behind goal and ran onto the field a split-second after the ball entered the net to celebrate, had encroached on the playing field, so Maart’s goal should have been overruled, were incorrect.

“They are contending incorrectly because the player was not on the field of play when the ball crossed the line. I tried to get a screenshot [pictured below] as best I could,” Damon said.

“But let’s say he [Frosler] was on the field of play [before the ball went into the net] — in the strictest terms in the Laws of the Game that goal should have been disallowed and a direct free-kick given to Orlando Pirates there were the extra person was on the field of play.

“But as we see from this picture, the Kaizer Chiefs player was not on the field of play.”

Damon is one of two refereeing development officers for Fifa in Africa and head of the SA Football Association's referees technical committee for training and development.

Pirates turn their attention to the MTN8 final against AmaZulu at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday (6pm), the last official domestic game ahead of a two-month Fifa international break for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Chiefs and Pirates do meet again soon, though, in the semifinal of the single-day Carling Black Label Cup friendly tournament at FNB Stadium on November 12.