I’m no apologist for Kevin Nolan. I have been distinctly unimpressed by his impact on our team. He is an improvement on Upson in terms of the captaincy role but, there again, so would I have been.

I am also aware that most of the perceived wisdom is in agreement with the decision of Mick Jones to brandish the red card for a tackle deemed to be reckless, just 8 minutes into Saturday’s clash with our arch rivals, Millwall. Given all of that, you might expect that I’d be ready to stick the proverbial boot into Nolan and castigate his irresponsibility and his willingness to jeopardise his team’s chances in such a key game. But I don’t feel that way.
Maybe I’m not going to do slate Nolan because we won. I wonder if I would have been able to write in support of captain Kev had we lost. Fortunately, we’ll never know.
My feeling at the time, albeit at the distance that the Bobby Moore Upper afforded between myself and the incident, was that the challenge was honest, robust yes, but not worthy of a red card.
My perception is that this view was shared by the majority in the ground. Not so surprising I hear you cry but in my view a crowd gets to know when a tackle is malicious and this one was not.
8 minutes into such a key game, in a cauldron of an atmosphere, the referee had an obligation to employ common sense. He failed to do this, presumably influenced more by the live TV exposure and the desire to gain centre stage or to appear to be tough and laying down his marker. As Allardyce commented: “The refs are scared stiff of not giving a red and saying ‘well, I thought that was a good tackle’ and then still getting criticised, which is wrong.” I agree, Sam.
Even if you do agree that Nolan should have gone, you’d have to concede that the current furore around contentious decisions and tackles in particular is reaching cacophonous levels. The inconsistencies are there for all to see and the common sense that referees used to be free to apply just seems to be ebbing away on a game by game basis. ‘This is football, not netball, and we have to be very careful’ to paraphrase Tony Pullis, following a recent Europa League game in which 2 players were sent off, despite there ‘not being a bad tackle in the game’.
It’s happening more and more and I for one am concerned.

That said, will somebody please tell me how Skrtel’s assault on Gareth Bale last night didn’t even merit a yellow! I guess inconsistency is a new thread all of its own…….