So Kevin Nolan will now face a three match ban for violent conduct, after his dreadful tackle on Victor Anichebe in today’s match, but I don’t think it’s sufficient punishment for such a bad challenge. It’s about time that the Premier League and the F.A. clamped down on such challenges more often. His team mate Danny Guthrie also received a 3 match ban after breaking Craig Fagans leg with a horrible and downright shameful tackle back in September.

Anichebe is lucky not have had his shin broken by Nolans two footed stamp and his look of shock when receiving the red card was pitiful. Chris Hughton has said that his first impression is that the challenge was poorly timed and not malicious. Quite how you can badly time a two footed lunge on to someone’s leg I do not know, but comments like that are frankly daft. Hughton may be trying to deflect the focus from Nolan, but mistimed? Never. It was a deliberate and controlled challenge by someone who knew exactly what he was doing. Let’s remember that Nolan was bragging about getting his former team mate at Bolton, J’Lloyd Samuel, to kick Theo Walcott as he was too fast for him back in September. Hardly the actions of an innocent man.

It’s about time the F.A. pulled their fingers out and started throwing the book at players who commit such tackles. I’m a big believer in suspensions matching injuries in situations like this. Guthrie should have been banned for 3 months after what he did to Fagan, Nolan should be banned for as long as Anichebe is out for. The lad has had a terrible season with injuries and this couldn’t have come at a worse time for him. He’s just back in to the first team squad and now gets clobbered by Nolan who claims it was accidental.

It just makes a mockery of the disciplinary process when players can commit such fouls and the F.A. sit silently by without reacting. After Gerrards behavior in the match against Chelsea, when he should have been sent off, Boswinga stamping on a players back whilst the assistant referee looked on and then Steve Bennets revelations, well, admissions, that players deliberately foul people to pick up cards to get time off makes you wonder just what is the point of the F.A.’s disciplinary panel. The Respect campaign seems to have fallen off the radar again but it takes the players, managers, the authorities and referees to all pull together.

When John Terry had his red card rescinded after being sent off against Manchester City, the Respect campaign simply fell apart.  How on earth can referee’s be expected to make a decision and then have it reversed on a whim? Having said that, Howard Webb had an absolute mare in yesterdays Manchester United v Blackburn Rovers game. The penalty incident especially. If it’s not a foul, then what happened to booking the player for simulation? Personally, I thought Gamst Pedersen went down very, very easily but if that had happened outside the box, what would the decision have been.

The F.A. need to start showing some guts and get tough with players who commit such challenges. Enough is enough.

Related posts:

1. Sack Dennis Wise And Keep Kevin Keegan
2. Drogba Suspended for Missile Attack
3. NBA’s Kevin Garnett Is A Chelsea Fan

If Alan Parry thinks refereeing is so easy, let’s see him be the man in black next week.

Football commentators sometimes stoke the fire by criticizing referees, which makes the TV viewers get emotional and forces undue pressure on referees, as well as countless subsequent articles in the press and people moaning on football radio shows.

Even worse is when referees get a crucial decision correct, such as the disallowed Bolton goal against Liverpool today. Alan Parry got it wrong claiming that Bolton goal should have been allowed. Parry must have missed the way Kevin Nolan manhandled Jose Pepe Reina and locked his arms around the Liverpool keeper before Gary Cahill nodded the ball into the Liverpool net. Even co-commentator Nigel Winterburn missed the foul too. Watch the video of the incident to help you make your own decision.

Worse still, Parry kept on claiming how Bolton were cheated of a goal and continued to criticize Rob Styles, an easy target for Parry.

Just as referees make mistakes, commentators need to be held accountable for their remarks too. Commentators often call for technology being introduced into the game, but it’s hypocritical when commentators, even with all of the technology available to them on TV, are unable to make correct calls too.

An interesting subplot to this story is that Alan Parry is a Liverpool supporter who has been criticized in the past by many TV viewers for being too biased toward Liverpool. As a result, Parry rarely commentates any games involving Liverpool on Sky television. Today’s Bolton against Liverpool match was on TWI, the international feed for football fans around the world.

Is it possible that Parry has been so concerned with his perceived bias against Liverpool that he is subconsciously trying too hard to be unbiased? And in doing so, he ends up being more biased against Liverpool. Or was it a simple mistake on his behalf?

As for Liverpool, they continue to look like true Premier League title contenders after scoring two sublime goals to win 2-0. The final score could have been at least 4-0 to Liverpool after several players missed easy changes in front of goal. Bolton, meanwhile, have a long season ahead of them if they want to elude relegation.

Related posts:

1. Rick Parry Is To Leave Liverpool
2. New Technology for EPL Refs
3. Reflections On Classic West Ham v Spurs Match