By Mister Happy
March 15 2004

Time and time again we read in newspapers and see interviews on T.V. where managers of football clubs openly attack the match officials and lay the blame of their own team’s inadequacies anywhere but at their own front door.

This weeks trophy for “talking nonsense with a large helping of sour grapes” goes not to our Colin, (although any decent psychiatrist could have scripted at least two foolscap pages from his post Wimbledon radio interview), but to Mr Windbag himself, Graeme Souness.

I know “Our Col” does sometimes go off the rails and clutches at the rarest of straws to explain our inadequacies but yesterday, Mr Souness took centre stage.

To claim that “his side lost the game because of a poxy decision” made by the official is factually incorrect. In my Sunday paper it tells me that the Champions elect beat Blackburn by 2 (yes two) goals to nil so I fail to see how one decision made by the match official resulted in two goals. Maybe he should look at why his side managed to score NIL as opposed to whinging and moaning about referee Alan Wiley.

Indeed, had Arsenal not gone on to win the game, the only person who should have been allowed onto a huge soap box would have been Arsene Wenger as ref Wiley disallowed an excellent goal created by the forethought of Thierry Henry. The fact that the striker made Friedel resemble our own Petterson is irrelevant. Arsenal simply stuck their heads down, forgot about the incident and went on to score a further two goals to win the game.

Souness then went on to moan that having seen the incident a number of times on television he has come to the conclusion that it wasn’t a free kick that led to the Gunners opening goal. Well Mr Souness, the ref doesn’t have that hindsight does he? Wake up and smell the coffee fella.

It is about time that managers started to admit when their teams play poorly or are beaten by a better side rather than whinging and moaning about the match officials.

The men in black (and green) are human and we at Bescot will testify that these human beings occasionally make an incorrect call. The sendings off of Samways, Aranalde, Ritchie (twice), Baird (twice), Leitao, Oakes and Walker back up the statement but Hey! We just have to get on with it.

There is absolutely no point in bemoaning the fact that the official may have made a poor decision. The best course of action is to do what Arsenal did. Just forget about the incident and move on.

Referees are part and parcel of the game. Without these guys in the middle there would be no football match and so there would be no central figure for us fans to hurl abuse at.

 So think on Mr Souness. In future blame your own teams inadequacies before you start on the referee. Or failing that, take a leaf out of “Our Col’s” book and blame the pitch, the wind, the fans, the training facilities, the noise from the M6, the fans again and again and again……………LOL.

At least Mr Souness hasn’t completely soured this fine Sunday with his ridiculous comments in the paper.

Well done to the Villa !! Now, that’s better.