Whoops - Now that's a howler!

Like Graham Poll when he dished out three yellows, Nigel Bannister was undoubtedly sitting with his head in his hands after he saw on television replays that he had given a goal when the ball had not even passed between the goalposts in the Watford v reading match. Bannister was clearly thrown by some kind of optical effect that convinced his eyes into thinking the ball was the other side of the post. Of course he looks stupid with the hindsight of replays, but such things happen, unfortunately.
The young ref appeared to be standing around the edge of the six-yard box on the far side of the penalty area - a perfect place for the ref to stand to observe behaviour in the penalty area - but he would have been unable to see the ball when it crossed the line a yard wide of the goal.
Both bannister and Stuart Attwell need to learn whatever lessons they can from this incident and move on. The incident does not make them bad officials. They are as good as they were before this match.
Wouldn't it have been nice, though, if one Reading player had told the ref it wasn't a goal. The decision is not final until play is restarted.