Flashback: When Watford were left haunted by a 'ghost goal' given by Stuart Attwell against Reading There was obviously Frank Lampard's shot in the World Cup game against Germany but surely nothing can be as surreal as that Reading game. It was such a freak event that we'll never see anything like it again. The 13th-minute flashpoint will be indelible in the memories of the supporters at the game. Stephen Hunt swung over a corner from the right and Eustace rose with Noel Hunt, the Reading forward, to challenge for the ball. Eustace made contact with his thigh and the ball crossed the line, but was nowhere near the goal frame, and play continued for five more seconds. Noel Hunt cut the ball back from the byline and Andre Bikey's header was superbly saved by Scott Loach but then play stopped - assistant Nigel Bannister had flagged for a goal and Attwell's name was suddenly thrust into the national conscience. The Warwickshire official consulted Bannister and then stunned the 14,761 crowd by awarding Reading a goal. Cue pandemonium, with a furious Boothroyd at the centre of the protests. He said: "It was a quite unbelievable situation where only one person on the pitch thought it was a goal. One player jumped up and down when he saw an opportunity and took full advantage of some inadequacies, shall we say. I'd never seen anything like it. It was like a UFO landing, a mistake like that. I don't think you could really blame Stuart, he was a young referee and was simply going on what his linesman, who was more experienced, was telling him. Noel Hunt appeared to celebrate the goal, arguably influencing Attwell's decision, and the Republic of Ireland international - now at Leeds United - has admitted it was "naughty." He said: "Stephen took the corner, I got my head on it and it did go wide. But when the referee stopped it and called it a goal, I'm not going to lie, I still celebrated. Stephen argued with the referee and said it wasn't a goal. "I said, "Look shut up Stephen get back to the halfway line," and I ran off. It was naughty of me at the time. I asked him if he'd have done the same and he said yes, so I'm not taking all the blame. We were on a good run at the time and it was a very important game. Boothroyd's complaints resulted in Attwell sending him to the stands, yet it was the perceived dishonesty of the Reading players that irked the home team and their manager. Should Reading have let us go up the field and score an equaliser? I don't expect players to take things into their own hands. It's not up to them," said Boothroyd. If someone stops you in a car park and gives you a present you don't say no do you? Fired up by that injustice, Watford responded and in the second half inched in front with goals from Tommy Smith and John-Joe O'Toole. The controversy was not to end there. Three minutes from time Eustace upended Stephen Hunt in the penalty area and the winger stepped up to claim a point for the visitors. Jay DeMerit, at the heart of the Watford defence that day, still shakes his head. "It was so frustrating as we were trying to chase the game when we shouldn't have been," he said. We were in a bit of a crisis with all our injuries and some diabolical calls. I'll never forget that day, it was like a dream.