Guiseley manager Mark Bower said the reason why his team hadn’t allowed Braintree Town a ‘walk-in’ goal after their controversial equaliser in their Vanarama National League clash was because of goalkeeper Tom King’s reaction to Oliver Norburn’s kick towards goal.

Speaking to the BBC after the game, the Guiseley boss said people around him at the time had told him that King had been “trying to be clever” in letting the ball into the net.

And that was why they decided not to let Braintree walk a goal in at the other end to even up the situation.

The flashpoint came in the 73rd minute of Braintree’s game at Guiseley with the visitors leading 1-0 after Michael Cheek’s 42nd minute strike.

With Cheek needing treatment for an injury, the visitors had put the ball out so he could receive it and expected the usual unwritten convention of the opposition returning the ball afterwards to be duly observed.

It was, but in returning the ball to Braintree after the restart, Guiseley’s Oliver Norburn lofted it over King and into the net.

With the goal being technically legitimate, it stood, however, Braintree were riled by the manner in which it had come and even more so by Guiseley’s unwillingness to gift them one back to redress the position.

However, Bower said it had been the way that King reacted to Norburn’s kick that led their course of action afterwards.

The Guiseley boss told the BBC: “It’s a difficult one and a really grey area.

“We’re returning the ball to them after it had been kicked out of play after an injury to one of their players.

“You’re looking at other things on the pitch and suddenly the ball is floating over the goalkeeper, who is just sort of stood there with his arms in the air.

“He allows the ball to go into the net.

“I’ve only half seen it but everyone standing around me said he has let it go in trying to be clever and it’s put us in a really difficult position.

“Should we allow them to go and score a goal or not?

“But everyone around us is saying that the keeper is trying to be clever.

“He’s let it go in and we should take the course of action that we did.

“For a few minutes the referee, I’m not sure what he was talking to the linesman about, but it has then all kicked off.

“Surrounding that it all got a bit unpleasant on there and we’ve made a decision that was a very difficult one and one that I’m sure will attract a lot of attention, whether it was right or wrong.

“It will be what the game is remembered for, but it was a difficult position to be in.”

Bower added: “Everyone on the side said it was the keeper trying to be clever.

“It was a clip (by Norburn).

“It wasn’t one of those that was driven into the top corner that no-one could do anything about, it just, from what people have said and I haven’t seen the start of the incident, the keeper could have stopped it and he has just sort of let it happen.

“It was a decision that myself and the club will have to live with, but it wasn’t the sort of cut and dried one that you’ve seen in the past where it is obvious and you allow that to happen.

“It’s an awful position to be in and not a nice one to be in.

“It doesn’t feel nice now and it’s not the way you want to score a goal in a game.

“But it’s happened and we’ve explained what everyone around - supporters, players on the pitch and the bench and club officials - were saying.

“Everyone said he had just let it in and that’s why we came to the conclusion that we came to.

“It’s probably my worst moment watching that last 20 minutes of the game wondering whether it was the right thing to have done, but we have to live with that decision and have to move on.”