Whitey Grandad

Hawkeye is not 100% accurate just because it shows a sharp image of ball hitting the stumps. It is only a best estimate of where the ball will go. And television replays will not solve anything. Who would operate the video suite? French TV technicians? The possibilities for misinformation are endless.

Maybe this foul was worse: (Schumacher on Battiston, 1982)

Oh, very drôle

I don't agree about N'gog. I've looked at that several times and he was trying to avoid getting his legs broken by Carsley, who did not touch the ball. There does not have to be contact with the player and I would probably have given a penalty in the same situation. The law is 'trip or attempt to trip' and if a player has to take evasive action which affects his control of the ball then that is also a foul. Anelka was just trying to exaggerate the effect of Given's challenge but it was more of him 'tripping over' the keeper's fingertips than him being tripped by the keeper, and that is a subtle difference.

As a senior season-ticket holder I shall only have to pay £5.00. Very reasonable, I though. If you had a season ticket you would only have to pay £9.00.

All the Irish players around Henry immediately switch off and put their hands in the air. If they had concentrated on blocking the ball they might have succeeded in preventing the goal. But life's not fair. It's something you need to teach your kids at a very early age.

Well, look at it this way: It would only have gone to penalties and I have never liked that as a way of settling the tie. Now the Irish can feel morally superior and can hold their heads up with honour. The French on the other 'hand' ....

Maradona's was worse, that one involved England. There have always been bad decisions, be they offsides, penalties given or not given, balls over the line or not, it's all part off this great game that we all love. But we're not talking about unfortunate refereeing decisions here, deliberate handball like this does leave a nasty taste in the mouth.

Let's just take it one game at a time, shall we?

I think you'll find it was a lot more than one mistake. Also most of his crosses were just lumped in from way too far back, were far too easy for their defence to deal with, and gave our attackers nothing to work with. As a full back, he is awful. As a right midfielder he may in time become a useful footballer. It's interesting that there are these two extreme views of James's performance. Some think he was our best player, others that he is a gaping hole in the defence.

Tuesday would be good, I can go to that! That'll be the kiss of death then.

Good luck to him and all the other sufferers out there. It just brings home to you the importance of health and happiness.

I forced myself to skip through the recording late last night and Lallana was daydreaming. If Crofts could see that the lay-off was going to come across then Lallana should also have been alert to it. He just reacted a second after Crofts, but that's all it took.

3rd goal was awful (non-existent) defending by James and a failure to track back by Lallana.

Here's one for our friends in the north-west:

Two possible answers there.. 1. He's a very good manager. 2. He took over a better set of players.

For a moment there I thought you meant that national team that plays in yellow. I nearly choked on my coffee.

His best cross yesterday came when the ball was laid back to him and he hit it first time, only for Lallana to miss the goal from 8 yards out. This was about as high up the pitch as he got (apart from corners).

That's unbelievable, isn't it? Shouldn't that be 'never a threat going forwards'? I watched the recording last night and Brighton were the better team by a country mile, yet at the game I thought we were unlucky not to have scraped a draw.

Interesting, that. I and many others thought he was our weakest link yesterday, certainly playing at right back. He was at fault for two of the goals and his crosses were nearly all from too far back and when he tried to go past the opposition they just took the ball off him and counter-attacked. Yet some on here have put him down as our best player. We can't all be right.

Sad, but true

Spot on, as usual.

Isn't he 'un peu dépassé'?

I zipped through the recording last night (yes, I must be a masochist) to see who it was that let Crofts run away from him for their third goal. Yes - it was Lallana. In the camera shot from the Chapel end you can see that he suddenly twigs what is happening and tries to run after him but is always two yards behind. If Crofts can run that far then surely somebody can run with him? James was just brushed aside for the cross but that's another story.

James pulled out of a few tackles yesterday and was at fault for their second and third goals.