Whitey Grandad

James was awful, has always been awful and should never, ever be let anywhere near the right-back position ever, ever, again.

Wasn't that before the Act of Union, so presumably you mean the English at that tim? Please don't include me in 'we'. Even I wasn't a twinkle then and the sins of the fathers and all that...

What do you mean, 'we'?

Just because the big Island sometime called 'Ireland' is one of the british isles does not mean that it is part of the nation of Britain, 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' to give it its full title. It is a historical term to differentiate it from little britain, which is in France and is now called 'Brittany'. Great britain was originally just the big island on which most of us live, and technically did not include the smaller islands one of which is the Isle of Wight. Geographically the complete set of islands is called the British Isles. The big island to the west was called Hibernia in roman times and is now generally known as Ireland. I don't have a problem with that. Can we please make a distinction between geography and politics? I've looked at the handball again and it happened so quickly that I'm prepared to accept that it is just one of those things that sometimes happens. There were hundreds of refereeing decisions made in that game and this was just one of them. We can't have a plebicite for every one of them. It's only a game, isn't it?

Please don't micturate on our bonfire. A man has to have a dream.

But who provides those video feeds? - normally the host nation. They will not therefore be impartial. The technicians could select the angles that suited their nation's best interests. I've seen many false video decisions in cricket and rugby and don't get me started on the pontifications I've seen in Sky's football coverage based on inconclusive evidence. It would only be passing the buck and would keep holding up the flow of the game. Then we'd have advert breaks whenever a decision was referred and we'd end up like american football. Somewhere somebody has to make a decision sometime. What we need are better referees and assistants.

Video evidence is not always conclusive and can often be misleading. If you're going to have another couple of referees, stick them down alongside the pitch.

If we are going to talk about replaying a match because of this one particular bad decision then we would have to review all of the games that were played in the group stages. The competition was extended so that more countries could participate, and that's when the seedings started in earnest. How many teams were in the finals in England in 1966? Wasn't it only 16? Then we went to 24 and now it's 32. In order to accommodate all the new teams then seeding was introduced to satisfy the traditional big names. I have some sympathy with the complaints about seeding being introduced to the play-offs at a late stage, though. If this had been the situation at the start of the group stages, would it have affected the way that some of the teams played? We shall never know.

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.