Whitey Grandad

I was thinking of the Championship, not the Premier League.

Might do a job at left midfield.

Or a penalty? All the players seemed to stop playing, ours waiting for a penalty and theirs for a foul on the keeper. I was looking at the linesman in case there was offside.

This one is less of a foul than ours at Everton, but it's all 'in the opinion of the referee' I'm afraid. There are a number of guidelines to consider such as whether the position of the hands and arms is 'natural'. It's supposed to be 'deliberate' but it's not very often that anyone decides to deliberately handball in the penalty area. What you have to consider is whether the player might reasonably have expected that his actions might result in the ball hitting his arm.

I noticed that he was limping and rubbing his right hip from about 11 minutes onwards.

How did this come into the public domain in the first place? The only people who can know for sure what was said are Clattenburg, his two assistants, the fourth official and Adam himself. Experienced lip readers might also have a good idea. The club's reaction can only have come through Adam. So who first made the complaint public?

Very nice. The poor girl looks frozen, she should cover herself up (Any idea who she is?)

I'm sure everybody can remember where they were when they heard that cup draw. I was sitting in the car at Hamble foreshore. I called my daughter straight away, we couldn't believe our luck.

They really should be kept away from football.

Oh, if only, if only...

Unlucky not to score today.

He and Vokes looked heavy to me.

I don't know, most teams seem to come away with three points

Indeed. The coal's still there, albeit a bit wet.

Our reserve CBs are nowhere near good enough. Kelvin looked tiny in goal and got beaten at his near post. Again. Far closer than it need have been. No real atmosphere, too many occasionals and no real 'edge' to the game. Still, a win's a win and you get no extra points for a thrashing. Who do we want next? Anyone at home, for me, so long as they're not as good as Burnley.

There's a big difference between floating an opinion and a plan. The Cabinet papers would seem to indicate that it had not got anywhere near that stage.

Yeah but...

Does it? And what if it does?

Hold on there a moment... I'm no apologist for people who are no longer with us but what we have here is an appraisal from someone reporting what they think the position of Macgregor was at the time, at best it is hearsay and it would certainly not stand up in a court of law. The phrase here is 'had it in mind' and not 'has it in mind'. He may well have changed his point of view, but we shall never know. Whatever, the mining industry was always doomed and neither side seemed to be in the mood to compromise: http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/business/scargill-s-no-comment-duel-with-coal-chief-revealed-by-newly-released-papers-1-6349428

If you win the toss and put the other team in then you can't expect to win.

Game off today, apparently.

I would have given it, but that's just my opinion. His hands were not in a natural position and in rugby it would be called a charge-down. I can't believe that Clattenburg could have seen it, even though he says he did. Swearing is not of itself a red card. The term is 'offensive, abusive or insulting language' so 'what the f**k was that?' may be ok if not said within the hearing of little old ladies but 'you're a f**king cheat, ref' will get you sent off, as will anything of a racist nature.

This is ironic, right?

Not my choice, that's down to the businessmen.

Words of wisdom from Brian Clough: Rules are Rules The rules are the rules. We all have to abide by them, on and off the field, because somebody has written them down. They might be good or they might be bad but the rules enable us to have a game. Without them, there is no game at all. Everybody makes mistakes. I haven't seen a goalkeeper yet who hasn't let a ball slip through his hands when he should have stopped it with his eyes closed. I've never seen a centre forward who hasn't missed a simple chance to score. I've never seen a perfect referee, either. In fact, I've not seen a perfect anything in life (apart from me!). page 159 Referees are doing their best My players learned to understand that referees were doing their best, honestly and in keeping with whatever talent they had for the job. It developed into a kind of mutual respect for one another: my lot made life as comfortable as possible for match officials, and they were quick to appreciate it. I lost count of the number of referees who came to me both at Derby and Forest and said, 'I'd just like to express my thanks. I love matches involving your team. We never have any trouble with them.' pages 161 - 162 Your Reputation Precedes you It worked to our benefit. A team of mine was the referees' best friend. It was only human nature that they should have a sympathetic outlook towards us. They wouldn't bend the rules or do us any particular favours but they knew that my players were not cheating or taking liberties. A mistimed tackle was exactly that and nothing more sinister. When a player of mine stayed down with an injury, no one was in the slightest doubt that he was genuinely hurt. I made a point of going to talk to referees at their meetings. Inevitably, I was asked about the badly behaved sides and I told them, 'That problem could be eliminated overnight. If a team persistently has players in trouble, especially for dissent, arguing and cussing and swearing, they should fine the managers concerned a month's wages. If a manager was hit in his pocket, he'd be quick to get rid of the rotten apples in his barrel. He wouldn't stand for some yob or thug costing him his wages.' page 162 Over Scrutiny Scrutiny is the referees' greatest enemy. Their performance is watched and recorded from just about every imaginable angle. Eventually, after as many re runs of the slow motion replay as it takes, the experts make up their minds and declare whether the referee was right or wrong. Would you like to have your every move at work recorded and analysed by some smart arsed expert who hasn't a clue what it's like to do your job in the first place? Of course you wouldn't and neither would I. The only thing that surprises me about modern refereeing is that so many people volunteer to do it. page 164 Plus ça change