"It’s his glove," Will Still said after Auxerre's 1-1 draw with Le Mans, and the post-match story quickly became bigger than the result. Lucas Buades' 48th-minute goal stood after the goal-line system signalled that the ball had crossed the line, but Still and Paul Nardi both pushed back hard against that call.
The goal-line call
Willy Delajod's watch vibrated to indicate that the ball had crossed the line, and VAR kept the original decision because it could not find a conclusive replay to overturn it. Still, speaking to A Bola, said not all the watches beeped at the same time and that one did not beep at all. He also said officials told him: "We had a computer problem, it is unprecedented."
Still made the same point again in comments reported by Foot Mercato and So Foot, saying the replay showed Nardi's glove and that "it is impossible for the ball to have gone in." Nardi was even more direct in his own way, saying: "I have the feeling 300% that there is no goal."
Auxerre's reaction after the draw
Auxerre's board issued a statement condemning what it called an unacceptable failure with serious consequences, so the club have treated this as more than a disputed refereeing moment. Danny Namaso was not a central figure in the incident, but the wider reaction shows how quickly the issue spilled beyond the pitch.
The football itself did not vanish. Cameron Archer equalised in the 56th minute, eight minutes after Buades' opener, and the match finished 1-1. Still, the dispute has left Auxerre arguing that the technology, not the scoreline, is what will be remembered.
The club's next job is to move on from a night where a watch, a replay and a disputed 48th-minute finish took over the conversation at Auxerre vs Le Mans.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →
