I THINK that I will never see, a poem lovely as a tree . . . they're not singing that anymore in South Zeal.
The village football team may have had their hopes of reaching the semi-finals of a county cup competition dashed — by a tree.
The bizarre incident occurred in the dying seconds of South Zeal's Devon Intermediate Cup game away to Westexe Rovers.
With the score at 0-0, Westexe's Darren Criddle took a corner. By fluke, the ball hit some overhanging tree branches, dropped down and . . . into the goal.
South Zeal manager Roger Halliday said: 'The ref just gave the goal straight away — everybody was completely shocked, even their players.
'None of us can believe it — we played for 90 minutes and to end the game like that doesn't seem right.
'It's a terrible way to go out of the competition, when nobody even touched the ball. It was a thousand to one chance that it should happen, literally in the last 30 seconds of the game'
Mr Halliday said he felt it was 'totally wrong' that the goal was given and some of the team were 'really incensed'.
The club intends to write a letter of appeal concerning the decision.
Chris Davidson, Devon FA county secretary, said the matter would need to be treated urgently as it was a cup competition.
'It's one of those things which will need to be investigated, in a committee situation,' he said.