Omar's moving finger writes.....

Another great result (I almost said victory), for ‘our wee country’, firstly we beat the team who are suddenly going to win the World cup, back in September (aye, pigs will fly) and now we’ve drawn with the team, labelled the ‘best’ in Europe. But first a wee ‘gripe’, why did the I.F.A. deem it necessary to ‘hike’ the price, at least for the North stand anyway, up by 25%, to £25. Would it not have been fairer, to honour the dedicated fans, who buy blocks of tickets without fail, instead of getting into them for more money? But what am I saying, of course its Jimmy Boyce and company and at the end of the day all one can expect from them, is to get ‘shafted’. If I am wrong and the ‘extra’ money was needed to pay the match expenses, then I stand ‘pleading’ guilty. Now for my other observations and firstly I’d like to comment on the performance of the English referee, Howard Webb. Anyone who watches a lot of English football (personally I don’t, as I believe it’s the least skilful football played anywhere in Europe, except maybe for Scotland and the South of Ireland), can vouch for the indignation voiced by most commentators for players who try to influence the referee by, (1) theatrical dives and (2) urging the referee to caution an opposing player. But on Tuesday night we witnessed an English referee who was influenced by both. Every time a Portuguese player was fouled, we had the theatrical ‘dives’ and rolls worthy of the Olympic games and then we had the pleas of the players and their manager, for the referee to caution the offender. The referee made no allowances for the fact that the pitch was completely sodden after all the rain we’ve had and that any tackles were going to ‘look worse’ than they actually were. One of the ‘biggest’ offenders was Manchester United winger Christian Ronaldo, his theatrical ‘dive’ when caught by Norn Iron’s Craigan, was something to behold, not very ‘Christian’ in my book, worthy of a mark of at least ten points in the Olympics. While midfielder Boa Morte, fouled just prior to halftime, with his manager ‘ranting and raving’ at the referee, appeared to be fatally injured, of course this was nothing but ‘histrionics’. In fact for all the labels of a ‘dirty’ match not one player had to be substituted for anything but tactical reasons during the whole game. Unless I’ve got it wrong is it still not within the referee’s jurisdiction to caution players for ‘ungentlemanly conduct’ and what can be more ‘ungentlemanly’ than trying to get a player cautioned or influence the referee by diving. All referees would have to do was start booking the ‘divers and appealers’ and maybe we could eliminate this ‘gamesmanship’ from football for good. In closing I must praise the Norn Iron boys, who never once ‘asked’ for a player to be booked or tried to influence the referee in any way, well done lads, the match may have ended in a draw, but you won the ‘fair play award’ hands down!