Carling Cup Verdict

Devastated is the word O'Neill used to describe his feelings after today's 2-1 loss to Man U.

O'Neill was speaking on the Official Site after the match and was left bemused and angered over Phil the...... Dowd's decision to not send off Nemanja Vidic after 5 minutes after he dragged down Gabby in the box.

I've already done this to death, but for those holidaying on Mars it was a clear penalty, a clear professional foul, and the idiot in charge couldn't even remember the rule book well enough to even book Vidic, let alone send him off as the rules of the game dictate.

O'Neill, like me, and many others, was dumbfounded by this decision and it leaves a bas taste in the mouth - especially as Vidic seems to think as long as you are infront of a player it can't be a sending off offence. The rules might be different in Serbia, who knows?

'It was plain for all to see. I think it's an inexplicable decision, I really don't understand it.'

Dowd at one point 'trotted' over like a donkey to speak to Monny who had obviously made his thoughts known, especially as it seemed everytime a Villa player farted they got booked but all O'Neill as a gentleman and scholar will say is:

'I spoke to Phil but what Phil and I said will just stay with me.'

He's a bigger man than me, I'd have recorded the incompetent buffoon's words, sent them to the News of the World and photoshopped lurid images with him and Bella if I was able to.

O'Neill rightly doesn't continue to say we'd have won outright had that decision gone the way of the law of the game, we all know Man U were good for the win. We've seen first hand Man U at 10 men aren't a pushover. But he does rightly point out the game changed or should've been changed on that decision.

'You're talking about Wembley. You're talking about all the things that go with Wembley in a Cup Final.

'It doesn't matter if it's in the first second of the game or the 89th minute. The decision is straight forward. It is so straight forward it's incredible.

'In a couple of days time it's forgotten - we're losing finalists in a really fine game of football. But it's a major point in the game.'

That's the key for me. I'm not convinced we'd have won ever if Vidic had rightly been binned, but it would've made a fair result whatever happened. That's all you can ask for, a fair result...and Phil Dowd is patently incapable of doing that it seems in any match he's involved with.

We weren't good enough over the 90 minutes ultimately. We may not have been had Vidic gone off. But at least we wouldn't be left agonising over 'what if'.

Football is big money and big business. Baring's Bank suffered from the incompetence, the mistakes and the idiocy of Nick Leeson and he understands that. When will football realise referee's thesedays get more wrong than right. It's not by their own design simply results anymore...it's hundreds of thousands of pounds at stake.

That's bad enough in itself because this is meant to be football, not the hyped up over reality nonsense it now is, but given that's what those in the FA and Prem wanted...surely it's about time they booted those ref's who regularly forget the rules and helped out those who struggle to enforce them because you get gobby, overpaid shites surrounding them every time they scratch their nose.

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