I bet you wish all that luck you had yesterday hadn’t deserted you against the Italians a couple weeks back.
He was one of my favourite players from the great Dons side of the 80s, you knew with Big Eck there was no shirking but it didn’t stop me calling him all sorts as Brum won his first match in charge.
I’m sure I’ve seen a Spurs game like that before somewhere, have all the play, go down to sloppy defending and weak penalty, make a big change at half time, have all the play, get back into it then concede screamers with more sloppy defending for equaliser and winner.
Two men certainly had a big hand in the way the game went and neither of them was Eck. Ramos turned things round at half time by bringing Huddlestone on for incredibly shaky Kaboul and Defoe for Bent which brought a change in fortunes at it did on Thursday against Aalborg.
But and it’s a big but why did it need those changes? After the UEFA Cup game why wasn’t Hudd starting? His passing made that win and it lead to Robbie Keane’s second yesterday, with the likes of Berbatov, Keane, Bent and then Defoe upfront it’s crying out for his precision from the middle of the park.
The other guy who had the biggest say was the ref Dowd, OK you could say other two guys with his mate Rennie, with their sending off Robbie Keane for a clean tackle. Keane loses the ball, yeah lunges for it and gets it his with his right foot the left being planted on the ground, after he gets the ball collides with the man. Now of course the man, Muamba, being an ex-ARSEnal player goes down screaming his head off big girl Viera style, as they are taught to do over there, as if it was a career threatener, strange how he managed to carry on the rest of the game.
Dowd backs off, as Robbie apologises for touching the screamer and here’s where it gets interesting as the officials are saying Dowd was telling Rennie – one of the worst refs out there -to get ready for a sending off when he looked like he didn’t say that much but was more intent on listening to what he was being told. He then flashes the red while making a stamping motion with his foot (pictured) and having a rather smug look on his face.
Now he had a very good view of it and it’s tough for refs at full speed but did he really see a stamp there, when you see the likes of challenges that Diouf produced against ‘Pool and the scummy Hunt against City last week only getting a yellow and this gets a straight red, with a bit of consultation, you have to ask if there’s something wrong going on here.
All credit to Keane he didn’t rant, rave and stay around to be escorted off the pitch, even though he knew he’d done nothing worthy of a red, something that could be taught to the likes of Chelsea, ManUre and ARSEnal.
What chances the F.A. muppets will not support their man in black and say he got it wrong with the appeal, which is needed with Keane being the top scorer and Bent being subbed due to an injury.