How interesting to note that the BBC website's report of the Birmingham v Aston Villa premiership match today states categorically that Brum's Daniel De Ridder was "caught" by a Villa defender and should have been given a penalty. For those who haven't seen it, Steve Bennett booked de Ridder for simulation when he went down in the penalty area.
Manager Steve "I don't want you to accuse me of whinging but..." Bruce whined that Bennett had got it wrong. Match of the Day "experts" said they had watched the incident dozens of times but couldn't make their minds up.
Two things emerge from my viewing of the incident.
1. In my humble opinion Bennett made a stunning and correct decision. The defender swung his leg at the ball, missed it and also missed de Ritter's foot. De Ridder went down looking for a penalty.
2. Where is the criticism of the cheating player? he didn't have to dive. In fact, he deliberately dragged his foot along the ground and went down as if kicked. Let's call a spade a spade here. HE CHEATED.
I get really fed up when I hear so-called experts not even bothering to mention that players are cheats. I would even go so far as to hazard that a lot, even half, of premiership players cheat regularly. Would it be too much to castigate players rather than encourage them to practice cheating moves on the training ground?
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