Whitey Grandad

There's not enough time to think in these situations. The time of travel of the ball is shorter than a normal human reaction time. The trouble with making all contact with the hand a penalty is that teams would spend the whole game aiming at their opponents hands instead of trying to score a goal. Then we might end up something like rugby or American Football with 4 points for a normal goal, two for a penalty foul and one for a penalty handball. Where would it all end?

You're absolutely right, of course. What I meant was that it's not surprising that anyone should be surprised that some of us are surprised by others being surprised by our position. I know I am

Please don't, it's always good to hear from you and I didn't mead it to sound like a put-down, I was just expressing a different opinion.

But your friend wasn't refereeing this game, so his opinion doesn't count any more than yours or mine. In my opinion it was definitely ball to hand and I don't consider that Fonte was charging down the ball but some referees would have given it. What I don't like to see is the endless discussion about these type of incidents with all the endless replays and slow-notion views. It wasn't given, life goes on. Some pundits are far too ready to hand out penalties right, left and centre. A penalty is a severe sanction and should be awarded sparingly. Perhaps teams should concentrate more on trying to score through normal means and TV could cut out all the over-analysis.

This indeed. He did his job here too well.

Ah, but that's what I'm used to!

But does he have the necessary beard?

It would need them to slump a little and we would have to be near 100% but if we hang in there the last game of the season could be very interesting.

A special mention for Mike Read today, always in control and kept up with play. It always gives more authority to your decisions if you're standing right next to the players when you blow your whistle.

It's hard at the top.

There's a comment on another thread about heads coming up ten times in a row and the probability of the next toss. Probability doesn't really come into it. Last year was as warm as a previous one, more or less. And what about the years that aren't on record?

It's so annoying that you wouldn't want to say anything funny in front of him.

Probably it was his missus doing it in order to get him to commit.

Only that in other cases where he hit the woodwork it may been because of inaccuracy whereas yesterday it was because of a partial block.

Not really surprising though, is it?

That header was deflected off the shoulder (or something) of a defender.

Yes, it was just this one because in order to play in the first round he would have had to be registered by 12:00 on Friday 2nd Jan and the window hadn't opened by then.

Yes he is why shouldn't he be? The only reason against would be if his parent club were to refuse permission or if he had played for another club in a previous round.

We are very probably paying for these two pro-rata anyway.

Which paper was that, Manchester Evening News?

Pleased for Rickie but disappointed that Liverpool won.

This. I suspect that the assistant's thinking was so obsessed by the position of Pantilimon and the need for two defenders that he overlooked the timing of the pass. The referee should have overruled though.

It was goalie's ball all the way. Gardos was the only one you could possibly question because he ought to have read the situation better and have had more confidence in Forster, but this is down to needing more playing time together.

Very impressive. Strikes the ball well, holds off opponents and doesn't hesitate when he spots a chance. Just what we needed.