“I have farted though…” - LOL…

It may be the case that the referee made an example out of Mascherano by sending him off for dissent following Ashley Cole’s antics in midweek, but I fully support him (the ref).

It really is about time that something was done, and done PROPERLY to stamp out dissent in the game. Just because you earn thousands of pounds a week, doesn’t mean you have the right to talk to people like crap, and act like a spoilt sod. Executives say that they’re trying to get things changed by introducing initiatives at the lower, grassroots end of the game, but what use it that? Examples are set as a downward trend and as such, it needs to be stamped down upon at the TOP. Referees need to be stronger and managers need to back them. How Rafa Benitez can defend his player today, I have no idea.

It filters all the way down to the Sunday leagues and more crucially on to the playgrounds and into the classrooms - kids really DO reproduce these antics, and players don’t really seem to give a toss. Something has to be done and it has to be a priority. It took the gloss off a REALLY good game in midweek, and that can’t keep happening.

Ok, ok, so I understand that you aren’t supposed to judge books by covers and should avoid sweeping generalisations where people are concerned, but I also know that this is my hole and I’ll do such things if I wish, so here goes.

I’M SORRY but, Shannon Matthews - what the hell is going on in that family? The girl’s mum has seven kids by six different fathers for one thing. Nothing wrong with that, you say? Well, I think it mean she puts it about a bit; I reckon we can say that. Her step dad comes across as UBER strange, and his uncle nabbed the poor little girl and stuck her in his divan bed for three weeks.

NOPE, NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT WHATSOEVER, THESE ARE ALL PERFECTLY NORMAL PEOPLE.

What the hell is going wrong with this world? I found myself listening to, and enjoying, a Girls Aloud cover of Teenage Dirtbag earlier on. It’s all going wrong somewhere.

The above book for anyone over age ten! What the heck?

Ok well, with no game for us today I had the fortune to spend some of the afternoon in the company with BBC Radio Shropshire, mainly because of a couple of interests in Shrewsbury’s game at Macclesfield.

I’ve never been and still am not TOO enamoured with the Premiership, so here’s my reaction to today’s other football action:

CHAMPIONSHIP
This has been a fascinating league again this year and has been for several seasons; much more pulsating than the Prem. If you’d told me in the summer that Stoke & Bristol City would be the top two and Hull would be in the play-off spots then I would’ve slapped you. But it’s fresh; it’d be great to see Stoke and Brizzle up in the Prem, and I’ve always had a soft-spot for Hull.

Wolves got a good win but it seems a bit too late for them, now, and it doesn’t seem like many go to Ipswich and win. Crystal Palace have been on a fantastic run, as have QPR, and Leicester needed their win today very badly, but how the hell did they stick four past the Baggies? And got Southampton are rubbish.

LEAGUE ONE
How crap are Gillingham? Stimson must now be realising he made a big, big mistake… They lose again, and Leeds seem to be doing as much as possible to throw away their fantastic start to the season. Swansea will lose their top-spot if they aren’t careful after being battered at Northampton. This league is great because everyone down to 12th has a chance of the play-offs, though I’d pick Forest as the team to do it. Walsall and Carlisle are the big surprise packages, too.

LEAGUE TWO
I feel delighted that Shrewsbury chucked away a victory today after they’ve fucked all over us since the start of the year, they’re now nine off the drop and it’s going to be a big job for Paul Simpson there. Almost everyone down at the bottom has picked up points, Wrexham; I’m sure will get out of it.
Morecambe are my L2 Team of the Year and they got a great win today, still can’t understand why clubs like Rotherham and Bradford aren’t doing better than they are at present.

ELSEWHERE
The Gulls and the Fleet in the Trophy Final, then. Other than that, Northwich get another win and they’ll go down kicking and screaming, I’m sure.

Well whip my arse, how fantastic has the FA Cup been this weekend?

I think it’s fantastic that the big four are all out and that there’s only one Prem team in the Semis can’t say I’m too disappointed that it’s Pompey, either. They deserved their win at Old Trafford, despite all the moaning that ManYoo have done. The ref got all the decisions right for me in that game, good on him I say.

Barnsley battered Chelsea and Middlesbrough were never in it against Cardiff, I think the Baggies were always going to batter Bristol, they’re such a good footballing side and as such I think THEY might go all the way and win it.

Fantastic stuff, though. Just a huge shame that the Semis are at Wembley. Where the hell is the incentive to reach the final for that day out now, if you’ve already done it?

Though this is the FA we’re talking about.