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Following on from the Ashley Cole incident last week Liverpool’s Mascherano completely lost the plot and as a result his team paid the price.

Without the previous weeks Ashley Cole fuss his actions would have been foolish, and with them they were nothing short of moronic.  No amount of complaining by Benitez, Liverpool fans or Mascherano himself will convince me otherwise.

He was rightly booked for the challenge and could easily have picked up a second yellow immediately after when the cameras showed a close up of him swearing, proving he has mastered some of the basics of English in his time spent here. He then ran 20 yards to get involved in a situation which had absolutely nothing to do with him.
Having got away with that he then chipped away at Steve Bennett a few more times for different decisions, before finally getting his come uppance.

People will call for consistency and to be fair they are right.  Referees will always make mistakes as will players but dissent is one area where there is no doubt.

Any abuse to an official can be heard by that official and therefore acted upon. So I agree that consistency will help - any dissent at all should be an immediate yellow card.  Ashley Cole (who should have gotten a straight red anyway) should have been given a yellow for the tackle and another for the dissent and made to walk.

I don’t accept Andy Gray’s argument that it shows passion.  I would like him to sit in a room of Rugby players (league or union) and tell them they don’t play with passion - the difference is they also play with discipline for the most part.  If they don’t they face the consequences.

If the FA/FIFA are serious about the respect issue then they should tell referees to issue a yellow card every time they are abused in anyway.  The referees should then enforce it to the letter.  Once the first weekend finished with 9 players against 8 or so, then they would learn pretty quickly and the game would be better for all concerned.

Lewis Hamilton got off to a flying start this weekend in Australia, taking pole position in qualifying, and then never losing the lead from start to finish.  It was just as well he was clear of the pack as there was chaos behind him with the safety car being used 4 times and only 7 drivers actually finishing the race.

The good news for Hamilton was that none of his closest rivals finished and the good news for his team was that Ferrari had their worse start to a season for 16 years picking up only one point.

Hamilton himself was please with he way he controlled car and tyres but still wants to improve, which is a sign of the ambition of the guy and bodes well for the rest of the season.  I for one, will be very surprised if he isn’t crowned World Champion later this year

The England cricket team have finally one a Test match on foreign soil for the first time in over 2 years, despite making exceedingly hard work of it towards the end.

Having been thumped in the first test against the Black Caps, they bounced back with a good first innings performance in Wellington and should have gone on to win within 4 days.  However, having put themselves in a winning position by the start of the Day 4 they once again got complacent and failed to drive home their advantage, dropping 5 yes FIVE catches and missing a stumping.  On another day and in another situation this could have been crucial - however, fortunately they had time to spare this time round, and needed only 90 minutes of Day 5 to wrap up the win.

The highlights of the Test was the bowling (Sidebottom in particular) the reliable Collingwood and a maiden Test 100 from Tim Ambrose.  The low points were the fielding on Day 4, and the fact that Strauss,  Vaughan, and Pietersen once again failed to impress.

Overall, its a good result as we won, but let’s not get too carried away.  We know with England that its generally one step forward and two steps back and there is no reason to suspect that this will be any different.  Their frailties and lack of “killer instinct” were there for all to see again and it won’t take much to knock them off their pedestal. But being and eternal optimist I will expect them to win the series now!

What a weekend for the underdogs and the glory of the FA Cup etc etc.  Chelski and Man United beaten and with Liverpool and Arsenal out last round the doors is wide open for the Pompey Boys.  That in itself you would think would make me happy, but there is a little cloud hanging over the situation.

I’m a firm believer, that Wembley should be kept for the final - it adds to the glamour of the occasion and is the icing on the cake for making it that far.  The idea of having the semi-finals there is born once again out of greed and a need to claw back revenue for the FA and Wembley.

Funnily enough with the “Big 4″ now out the organisers are worried that they will struggle to fill the 90000 seats for two matches - one involving 2 Championship sides.  As a result they are talking about reducing the cost of tickets so the plan might well backfire.

I’m not sure what the cost of tickets will be yet, but would love to go to the final should the Blue Army not make a mess of their game against West Brom, but I really am not sure I want my first trip to the New Wembley to be a semi-final - even if the tickets are being sold at a discount.

I can’t claim to be the most ardent supporter, who travels all over the country to watch them play, but for those that are, is it fair to drag them into London twice, and to a stadium that might be only 3/4 full?