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Like me on a walk through the Yorkshire Dales, Liverpool players management and fans alike are struggling to get over Rob Styles penalty decision yesterday.

He judged that Steve Finnan had fouled Florent Malouda when the replay clearly showed if anything Malouda had jumped into Finnan.  The result cost Liverpool 2 points, incensed Liverpool and got Styles ”rested” from this weekend’s fixtures, and probably from ever visiting Anfield again.

He compounded his error (perhaps because he realised from the reaction of the Liverpool players that he had dropped a clanger and the pressure was getting to him), by appearing to card Essien for a second time and not sending him off.  The official story is that he still had the yellow card in his hand after awarding it to John Terry, and so when he put his arm in the air for a free kick it appeared he was awarding a card to Essien.  Certainly Essien was convinced he had been given it - thankfully though his coach new exactly what was going on of course.

I would like to see the incident again, but from my recollection he gave JT the card, put it back in his pocket then took it out again when Essien refused to back off from the kick.  he looked at his card then put it back in his pocket - did he see that he had already booked Essien and bottle it?  Maybe, just maybe.

Either way the players only have themselves to blame really.  They are constantly chipping away at the referee and trying to con him by diving, so inevitably they will have their confidence eroded and make the odd mistake.  Styles was not the only one to get it wrong this weekend.

Ian Gosling the assistant referee in the Fulham Middlesborough match disallowed a David Healy goal when it was clearly over the line.  He too will be rested on Saturday.

Then there is the Portsmouth Bolton game, which has predictably received little coverage.  Steve Tanner barely got a major decision right.  First up he disallowed a Kanu goal, for a foul when the replay showed at worse was a 50/50 challenge, then when Hreidarsson floored Anelka to gain possession he waved play on and Pompey went on to equalise from the move.

The decisive penalty award could have gone either way, but even as a Pompey fan the way Kanu arched his back and threw himself forward was embarrassing, and might have not only gone against him but could have also got him carded.  This goes back to my earlier point - the players don’t help themselves in the long run, and no doubt Kanu will be subject to a decsion that unfairly goes against him later in the season, having neatly forgotten about this one.

So what’s the solution?  The players need to take a long hard look at themselves and clean up their act - this should be driven  by the managers and coaches with severe fines for persistant play actors.  Secondly is the old chestnut of video technology.  Even the stuffed shirts of Wimbledon have embraced it this year so why not FIFA when there is so much money at stake?

The hawkeye technology could be implemented immediately and would probably only need to be used a couple of times a season.  Then each team should be given a number of challenges each match (as with the tennis).  The fourth official could make a decision quickly and the CORRECT punishment handed out, instead of the lottery we have at the moment.  If the technology is used then the players would stop the acting for fear of being found on the spot and the referee’s job would become easier.