Whitey Grandad

Please forgive my terse reply which was prompted by the word 'tripe' used by someone who appears not to know the details of the Laws of the Game. In truth, we can only guess what motives were behind J-Rod's actions and what prompted Halsey's decision.

Absolutely, yes we do.

Let's not be churlish. As Thatcher once said: "Just rejoice at that news".

What I was trying to say was that the fall may have been an intentional part of moving the ball on to Rickie and at the same time avoiding the tackle and not an intention to deceive. The way that both arms go forward would seem to support this. (Surely post #180 is a spoof?)

Good player, I wish we had more of his quality.

Six wins and a couple of draws should be enough, I reckon, but it will probably go to the last game. Stoke at home to stay up?

Well I've just had several looks at it again and it doesn't look like a deliberate dive to me. J-Rod gets his right toe to the ball first at which point his left leg is trailing. He then moves his right foot out of the way to avoid the challenge by which time it is too late to bring his left leg forward. How about this interpretation? He manages to get to the ball first and toe-pokes it forward to Rickie and then gets out of the way of the challenge by sprawling forward. It does not look dramatic and he does not immediately look towards the referee and is surprised as anybody when the whistle goes.

I know how it feels. Interesting, thanks for that.

A fair assessment. In almost every penalty incident the offended player could make an effort to carry on but they then run the danger of the referee not having to make a decision. As for the overpaid BBC pundits, how many times have they justified a penalty decision by saying 'there was contact' no matter how slight.

Fair enough. It just looked like self-preservation to me.

It certainly looks like a tackle to me. IfJ-rod plants his right foot down without withdrawing it he would be lucky to escape a serious injury.

In this case the left leg doesn't matter. Merely having to take avoiding action with the right can be considered enough for a foul.

It was the clean sheet that won it as much as the penalty.

Not tripe at all. Go and do a refereeing course and then come back.

The wording is: 'trip, or attempt to trip' so there does not have to be contact for it to be a foul.

The wording of the relevant law is 'trip, or attempt to trip'

No charge for change of address. (I think)

I shall reserve judgement until I've seen the incident. Great result though.

A draw wouldn't be the end of the world but we need to pick up some wins sooner rather than later. A couple of wins might even tip the balance if any player is undecided about coming to join us.

'...entering administration after the fourth Thursday in March...' are the relevant words.

Bit more about the effect of the sun here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/08jan_sunclimate/

A team cannot start a second successive season in administration, nor can they spend more than 18 months in administration. I don't know what happens if they break these condiitions.

Too many fingers.

Definitely should have been disallowed, but that is up to the officials. Once the ball has hit him on the hand and is rolling into goal then anybody would have followed it up. Just poor refereeing.

'Man playing football gets hit on the head by the ball'. It happens countless time on Sunday mornings in your local park. I remember Paul Scholes hammering the ball at a Saints player a few years ago. Not a dicky bird from anyone. That was a frustrated slice and not intentional. Bunch of Northern softies.