Offside ? Just Make Us A Cup Of Tea, Love

Mike Newell found a new excuse yesterday after his Luton team were trampled beneath the wheels of the QPR bandwagon. It was because the linesman was a bird, who should have been at home making the tea instead of at the match, not giving Luton penalties. I think he's embarrassed himself here. I see no reason why you need a set of wedding tackle to run the line, quite frankly. All you really need is a thick skin, the amount of stick they get from the fans. If he means that referees should have played to a certain level, then he should say so. I'd be prepared to bet that many referees have hardly played the game at all, and furthermore that this is pretty much uncorrelated with how good or bad they are at refereeing. Just don't anyone show Newell this or he'll go "See ! See ! What did I tell you ?!"

As is common with someone trying to push an argument that they know is a bit shaky, he takes it to a ridiculous extreme and says "what happens when they're all women, then we're in trouble". Well he certainly would be. But that's not going to happen is it ? QPR manager John Gregory had no comment to make because he buggered off to a Bruce Springsteen concert right after the game. I'm starting to warm to the guy, I really am :-). It was left to QPR's Marcus Bignot to put Newell in his place, as you can see in the article linked. Fortunately the article avoids mentioning that Bignot is a Grade A nutter :-), but as it says he did manage Birmingham Ladies Team, which would almost certainly make him the second best manager in Birmingham behind Martin O'Neill if nothing else.

Anyway 3 more points for the mighty R's and amazingly the League Paper described Zesh Rehman as "a rock". Unless they were talking about his mobility (and that's a possibility) that's hopefully a sign of improvement. Barnet also progressed in the FA Cup, and I can tell you I don't often celebrate two away wins throwing my lot in with these two.

Elsewhere I can kiss goodbye to my foolish bet on Liverpool to win the Premiership betting without Chelsea. I should have made sure it was betting without about 10 other teams as well. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. Bellamy in to add pace upfront, Pennant to add width, Agger to strengthen the defence - but it hasn't worked out like that at all. Oh well.