Not about the Premiership, but not entirely unrelated: "ZAGREB, March 25 (Reuters) - Croatia coach Slaven Bilic was delighted after a 2-1 Euro 2008 qualifying win over Macedonia on Saturday pulled them five points ahead of England and kept them two ahead of Russia at the top of Group E. Croatia got a rough ride in the first half when they fell behind to a goal from Macedonia captain Goce Sedloski. They settled into their rhythm only after Darijo Srna came on for the second half and Sedloski was sent off for a second bookable offence. Srna drew level on the hour with a superbly executed free kick and then set up Eduardo da Silva to grab an 88th minute winner. Bilic acknowledged the sending off had made life easier for his team. He said not starting with Srna was a tactical error. 'We kept pushing on relentlessly after they were a man down and got our reward, deservedly so. Also, it turns out that leaving Srna on the bench was a mistake as he added an extra dimension to our game,' he said." Correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't read about managers/coaches admitting mistakes very often. Which of the Premiership managers regularly shows this sort of courage?

I know it has been done to death, but you might be interested in this quote from a Liverpool forum: "The goal didn't come about because the offside rule is stupid, it came about because the ref and linesmen made an absolute howler. It should have been hauled back, but credit to Fowler and Morientes for getting on with it. Play to the whistle and all that. At least two Blackburn defenders stopped dead and turned to the ref, when they could've easily got themselves in front of Fowler as the ball came back in to him. Was a bit disappointed with Cisse's attempt at cracking on that he wasn't interfering after the event. Wasn't exactly helpful, and it's no wonder he was on the end of some questionable challenges after that. From Blackburn's point of view, I'm just glad it didn't happen in the last five minutes of the match. If we'd have been in their position, I'd have been livid, but still would've expected to get something from the match from 1-0 down. If Blackburn end up a draw short of a CL place next season, I'll really feel for them. All this said, the rule on the whole isn't being implemented well. Any rule that asks the officials to have an opinion on a situation as opposed to one thing being alright and another being wrong always ends up conning most teams over the course of a season. Yes, they do seem to even themselves out, but I'd rather they weren't there to start off with. And I have a horrible feeling that bad refereeing on this matter will end up having a say in the destiny of the World Cup." Here is the link if anyone cares - http://www.liverpoolfc-newkit.co.uk/cgi-bi...=ST;f=1;t=17268 Everyone agrees it is silly, and 'over a season it all evens out' isn't really good enough. Is there a formal way for fans to input into FIFA decisions/discussions on these things? Anyone know? After all, with all the energy spent whinging about this, wouldn't we be better to direct in a constructive way?

When I first started playing as a kid, one of the first things I learnt was to 'play to the whistle'. I'm amazed the number of times I see professional footballers not doing that - waiting for a decision that doesn't come, and then complaining that they were caught out sitting back on their heels. Did we do this in Cisse's off side? I haven't seen the game, but I've seen this point made on another forum. Morientes wasn't offside, so presumably he bet the offside trap - how? Was it because we weren't playing to the whistle? CL was a pipe dream anyway, now we need to show that we can earn a stop in Europe, and that will be sweet when we achieve it.

huh?

Relax mate, he told you that he was paying for his feed a couple of posts before.

Can you give me a link mate?

Any one got a link to internet radio for the game? Cheers