After a most enjoyable meal of fillet steak, Dad and I settled to enjoy the FA Cup clash between Manchester United and Liverpool.Well, we would have, had not the great Mr Webb - or Sergeant Webb, to give him his full police title - completely spoilt the game by a penalty award to Man U after a mere 31 seconds of play!
There was absolutely minimal contact - Berbatov clearly went an extra step or so, before doing one of his favourite Bulgarian dives!
Of course, we've seen this happen with Howard Webb before, and the penalty was awarded and converted, even though Berbatov wasn't ideally even in a scoring position.
Then later he sends off the Liverpool captain, Steven Gerrard for what was supposed to be a dangerous tackle on Michael Carrick - despite the fact that some of the Man U players regularly make far worse tackles - Rafael please note! Carrick didn't even have to go off, but got up after a minimum of treatment, and looking decidedly none the worse for this 'oh so dangerous' challenge.
No, Mr Webb, you spoilt it for everyone - and wrecked Dalgleish's chances of getting Liverpool back on their feet - even though they were, in fact, playing with far greater conviction than they had done under Roy Hodgson.
Of course, apart from all the fees etc Mr Webb picks up, he's also on a 5-year sabbatical from South Yorkshire Police. The Chief Constable said that Howard Webb brings to his refereeing the same kind of qualities as are need on a weekend in the centre of town to break up a punch-up. Perhaps he should also have mentioned the occasional need apparently to fabricate the evidence, and stitch people up.
I didn't make the picture above - it's from someone else's blog, and, of course, Man U have moved on from that particular shirt deal - but we all know what the picture means!
