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Last Updated: Wednesday, 15 December, 2004, 12:47 GMT
A kick in the teeth
Sheffield United boss and BBC Sport columnist Neil Warnock
By Neil Warnock
Sheff Utd boss and BBC Sport columnist

Our local derby at Rotherham was a black day for me, and I can tell you it took some getting over.

I don't think I have ever been so disappointed after a game and felt so let down as I did after that match, which saw us hanging on for a draw when we should have won.

We scored a perfectly good third goal which was wiped out for offside and it didn't make me feel any better when the television pundits confirmed what we thought - that it was a legitimate goal.

Who is to say those two points lost won't cost us dearly at the end of the season?

I accept that during the course of a season, every club will have similar decisions that go for and against them, but in my career this was the clearest two points I have ever lost through no fault of my own or my team.

Garry Birtles said that decisions like that can cost managers their jobs and I have always been a strong believer that officials - in this case the referee's assistant - should be punished when it's shown that a wrong decision costs a team points.

Sheffield United's Chris Armstrong
Chris Armstrong is fighting a losing battle

In the same way a player is banned when he makes a mistake in breaking the rules, an official shouldn't be allowed to participate in the next game he is scheduled to take part in.

Since Keith Hackett's appointment as chief of the professional game referees, things have got better. Referees are allowed to man-manage better than before, have conversations and use 'common-sense' which hasn't been allowed in past hierarchy of officialdom.

I was also sad to see Jack Lester ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.

When things like this happen, you can't blame players for getting the best contract they can because you never know when there's an injury like that around the corner.

We've got a lad called Chris Armstrong who has been out for a year now with a series of knee injuries.

I have never known a young man to work so hard to overcome his problems but it looks like he may have to pack it in, which will be devastating to his life.

The work he's put in is unbelievable but unfortunately, you don't hear about cases like this very often.

I wasn't sure whether Thierry Henry or Graham Poll was going to take the free-kick!!
Neil Warnock

For every player who gets the acclaim for a goal or great performance, there's somebody working behind the scenes to get back from injury and save his career.

It's a great shame for Chris because he looked like he was going to be one hell of a player.

I spoke to Jack and it's a massive blow for him and Forest. He was hoping he could go back there and help them out of trouble.

He's got to keep his chin up. He'll work hard and with luck he'll come back.

I was fascinated by the Chelsea versus Arsenal game, not least by Arsenal's second goal.

At one point, I wasn't sure whether Thierry Henry or Graham Poll was going to take the free-kick!

In the end, it was Henry, but it raised an interesting point over the taking of quick free-kicks.

While the referee was asking Henry, the keeper has to have some guidance from the referee as well.

The past understanding is that once the referee has told the attacking team they can take the free-kick quickly he will move away so the keeper can see him.

Referee Graham Poll
What signals is Graham Poll giving off?

Graham stood there while the free-kick was taken so the keeper had no warning.

We had a situation earlier this season where we had a quickly-taken free-kick disallowed as the referee hadn't told our player he could take it.

Once again, what you're looking for is consistency, the same ruling applied across the board so everybody knows exactly where they stand.

People talk about the Premiership title race being between Chelsea and Arsenal but everyone tends to forget about Everton.

They must be loving it at the moment because nobody expects them to be up there and as a result there's no pressure on them and they're probably getting better results because of that.


THE NEIL WARNOCK COLUMN

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