WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE, REPUTATION CAN GET YOU INTO TROUBLE BEFORE YOU HAVE EVEN KICKED A BALL. IT'S AS TRUE TODAY AS IT EVER WAS. 

Julian Dicks wasn't known as the 'Terminator' at Upton Park for his ability to clip a pinpoint pass over 50 yards. 'Mad Dog' Martin Allen had more than a 30-yard screamer in his arsenal. I would defy any referee of their day to look me in the eye and say that they didn't keep a special eagle eye over those West Ham warriors.

The latest apparent 'victim' of reputation is Alan Smith of Leeds, no choirboy it's true, but he was surely no more guilty of some rough stuff in last weekend's FA Cup tie at Cardiff than City's own Andy Legg, who was trying to swap shirts and sign Smith's ankles with his studs at the same time. If Legg felt he had been subjected to an assault by Smith, why, immediately after the game, did he offer to speak on the player's behalf at an appeal hearing for his red card? 

As for West Ham's own John Moncur at Macclesfield. Late tackle, yes, yellow card, deservedly so, but a second yellow for being attacked en masse by the Macclesfield ranks while smiling seems just a little harsh, especially as the watching TV audience witnessed at least two Macclesfield players retaliate in a manner which could have seen some players sent off, yet one of them escaped without even a verbal reprimand. 

Reputation is indeed the key to the problem, the reputation of the referee. The men who patrol the turf to enforce the rules should be there to help the game flow, and I would applaud any innovation that would assist the officials in achieving exactly that. But this season's directive, to give a yellow card to those wishing to 'con' the referee into giving a penalty, is the most laughable. Not in it's intention, but in it's application. 

It appears now that if you take a tumble in the penalty area, but it is not worthy of a penalty, you will pick up a booking for your pains. No middle ground. No, 'get up son, you just lost your balance'. In Arsenal's 2-1 win at Anfield recently, Giovanni van Bronckhorst hit the turf in Liverpool's penalty area but regained his feet immediately to chase the ball. As he turned from the touchline, he found a yellow card waving in his face, yet surely if he was play acting, he would have been rolling around on the ground, not scrambling to get in a challenge.  

A national newspaper recently wanted to run a story on the number of players booked for diving in the penalty area. The reporter contacted the Football Association and the referee's association, to be told that such records were not to hand. Some referees give the caution for 'ungentlemanly conduct', it was explained. Others report it as 'dissent'. 

If referees can't even decide what the offence is, or keep an easily available record of just how may cautions are administered in that respect, how on earth can they tell whether their scheme is working? I'm off now, before I get the red card . . . .