FA explains United goal ruling An FA spokesman after the game absolved the linesman of any responsibility for the apparently mistaken decision not to award a goal to Spurs after a shot from the halfway line crossed the goal line by at least a meter. "The shot came in from an unusual distance and as such caught the linesman out of position forcing him to race back towards the goal as the play developed", explained the spokesman, "As he ran, the United scarf he was wearing under his shirt came loose and fluttered up into his face obscuring his view and preventing him from making the call. It was just one of those things." In response to further questions from the Press the spokesman explained "If they don't already have a United tattoo most officials on game day try to wear a scarf or a replica shirt under their regulation kit to show their support for the worlds greatest club. The linesman in this case had chosen to wear a United scarf, a common choice that is in keeping with FA guidelines. The root cause of the problem lies not with the linesman but with the players and management of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club who broke one the most important unwritten rules of the English FA: They placed a shot on target at Old Trafford. Martin Jol is new to this country and perhaps he s not yet familiar with some of our finer traditions. Fortunately if he doesn't yet understand that for the greater good of the game visiting teams, by tradition, are not expected to try to score at Old Trafford then our officials are in a position to help Mr Jol make that cultural adjustment." Chuckling to himself the FA spokesman added "The goal had to be disallowed to avoid us descending down a slippery slope that would be bad for the national game. It's a fine line the officials have to walk. If they award a goal this week, next week someone might expect a penalty or ask that Van Nistleroy be booked for diving. Can you imagine? That would just never do. No no no. Shocking, just the thought of it."

Everton are bobbins, the only advantage they have over us is the fact that Moyes has had longer in charge than Sparky and more time to do 'his thing'. I wouldn't be surprised if we had a similar start to them next season.

Oh SH!T!!!!!!!!! That's it then, no Savage for us then

Still showing the lapses though, they had a fair shout for a penalty eh? He definitely IS playing better than in the latter stages of Souness era though.

You're correct regarding Matteo Who would have thought we'd end up with one of the meaner defences in the top flight at the turn of the year? Amazing what basic organisation and a decent training regime can produce. I just hope it continues when (if?) the new lads start playing.

We've seen worse, we played Celtic not too long ago.

Bleeding Nora, all you ever do is whinge and moan and criticise. How much would you bid then, Bob Shankley? You're turning into Jim's apprentice. To be fair there's no mention of attendances or ticket sales in his post though, that's a minor miracle in itself

More like he's sh!t scared of getting a clip off them. I get the impression he's loving the sudden media spotlight a little too much.

I'm in the against Hartson camp. He's looked absolute bobbins the past few times I've seen him play and has the touch of an epileptic rapist. Dean Ashton on the other hand.......

Love to - shall we say a tenner? Was thinking a little more than a tenner. £50? Could I simply say that Ossydave's location is "Not Given"? If you want to. It's Ossy, a few on here can vouch for me.

Love to - shall we say a tenner? Was thinking a little more than a tenner. £50?

We're 22 points behind them after only 17 games. I'd call that a fairly long way. Amazing what a few scrappy wins do for your points tally. I was talking about on the whole, as a club. So will YOU take me up on the bet?

IMO we're not THAT far behind Everton. They've tightened up their defence, we're showing a few signs of doing that too. We just need to start nicking a few goals and we're on a par with them basically. People are making them out to be an awesome force

Can't believe how highly people are rating Everton They're 'doing a villa' under Gregory, 'a Bolton' or 'a Charlton' from previous years. I'll bet anyone on this forum as much as you want that they won't finish top 6. Rovers to win, 2-0.

I wouldn't say I'm as scared as you but I'd have to agree that set-pieces are Brad's weakness. On the basis that Arsenal's weakness is set-pieces then it's be a bit backwards to sign Brad I don't think we'd get anything like 3M for him either.

Yeah great idea

I'm not usually one to speculate but De Pedro dissapeared around the same time Andy Todd re-appeared. There's no way this is just a co-incidence.

Remember when Ince returned to West Ham? He was subjected to bananas being thrown at him and severe racist abuse throughout the game by large sections of the crowd. That actually received far less press coverage also than the DY incident! We could go on all day too bringing up incidents like Kurt Nogan Vs our dear friends from Burnley that have been swept under the carpet. It's getting boring now hearing about the amount of fuss this has all caused. Will be interesting to see what reaction Yorke receives IF he ever visits Ewood again.

how exactly does that sound then !!!!!!!!! It's quite simple. Our mission, if we choose to accept it, is to find the whereabouts of a bit of a nob wearing a half Roma/half Burnley scarf, with what can only be described as a BROCKNEY accent. SOmeone must know of an individual fitting this description

They both sound quick to lay into us, who do they think they are? 2-0 Rovers.

Don't think anyone can deny that's good news! Sad to see TP go but we can't just pay him money for nothing. It's life, we had to let an old boy go at work this week who'd worked here all his life, same scenario.

Youri's not a popular choice anymore it seems

Yes and none of the crowd were giving off negative vibes on Saturday, there's no harm discussing the problems on here though!

Because one pint doesn't equate to a pi$$-up. There's still a lot of areas that need addressing despite a decent result/performance on Saturday.

Odd/non-existent tactics. A complete lack of understanding of the offside trap. Low morale/confidence. Above all I don't think Hughes knows his players properly yet.