Dandy Town may lodge an appeal against the result of their Premier Division match against PHC at Devonshire Rec on Friday night after their opponents’ equaliser was wrongly allowed to stand.

PHC goalkeeper Quinaceo Hunt scored with a free kick from well inside his half, which bounced once before the ball went over flailing Town goalkeeper Jahquil Hill and into the net.

After leaving Hunt’s boot, there were no further touches by any other player and the goal should have been disallowed, with referee Kwinsi Williams having awarded a free kick for offside against Riley Robinson.

The Laws of the Game dictate that after an offside decision has been given, play is restarted with an indirect free kick. But Williams, who is from Trinidad & Tobago and on island to assist the Bermuda Football Association with the shortage of referees, at no point raised an arm in the air — the signal for an indirect free kick — and allowed the goal to stand.

Under Fifa rules, a match result can be overturned and replayed only in very specific and rare circumstances involving a “misapplication of the Laws of the Game" by a referee, not for a simple error in judgment. The final decision rests with disciplinary bodies and not the on-field officials.

Town coach Jarreau Hayward has been angered by the mistake, with the club’s leadership exploring the possibility of lodging an appeal with the BFA.

“There was a misapplication of the law and in the Fifa rules if that is the case, then it’s supposed to be overturned,” Hayward said.

“So I guess we’ll see what happens moving forward. But according to Fifa rules and regulations, our appeal really should stand and that goal should be disallowed.

“I think that’s something for the executive to figure out. What happens now is not in my hands, but we’ll see what happens. I don’t know exactly what the BFA protocol is.

“The beauty of it is that this match was shown live on Fifa+. My staff and I have reviewed the video and the refereeing report, and the refereeing staff should corroborate exactly what happened and that there was a miscommunication.”

As well as being angry with the officials, he is also blaming himself for not bringing the error to the attention of the officials in real time.

“We should have defended it better, but at the same time the goalkeeper was credited for the goal. It was an offside offence and when the ball went in the net, we should have been awarded a goal kick.

“I take partial blame for the oversight. Once the offside was given, my mind was focused on our defending, as I knew they were going to kick it long because they were obviously trying to score to tie the game.

“I was just so focused on what was going to happen next that I forgot how the free kick had been awarded. There was an oversight from the coaching staff and I, but at the same time that’s why the officials are there.

“You’ve got two assistant referees, a referee a fourth official and a match commissioner. So that crew surely should have picked up that moment, but it wasn’t to be.”

While the Town coach is allowing the fallout from the decision to be handled by the club’s executive, Hayward has shifted his focus to the Dudley Eve Trophy semi-final clash with St George’s at Bernard Park on Wednesday night.

“This was a good lesson because we’ve had chances to bury games in the past,” he said.

“But because we won those games, it may not have mattered. In this case, it has taught us a valuable lesson because we feel that we really should have ended the game a long time before that happened.”