Manchester United (Part 1)

Do you have many member's from outside of Auckland?

I know all the Liverpool fans will be laughing at Torres, but I would have him in my team anytime.

Coles tackle was thuggish and he was lucky to stay on the park.

Total c**t of a tackle, especially the continuation with the other foot.

You would think it should be penalty, not sure if it was because the AR seemed to alert the ref to the offence. Hope it is nothing too serious, luckily in a position we have a lot of depth

He could have been given a red card, but if the ball was dead I doubt it could have been a penalty.

Yeah, seems ball was dead before contact was made: [quote=ref365]Right then, that aside, I want to have a look first at Ashley Cole's challenge on Javier Hernandez which so enraged Sir Alex Ferguson. There's a double issue to be discussed here, because there is a debate on the severity of the tackle and then one on whether it was a penalty or not. Starting with the latter, I have slowed down the footage to the point where I can tell that when Cole made contact with Hernandez the ball was out of play. Just. So technically the right decision was made to not give a penalty. Now I think referee Phil Dowd and his assistant have guessed at that, because the speed of the incident is so great that I doubt they were certain, but they've got to call it one way or another. They've guessed, but they've got it right. However, I think the tackle itself was awful. It was high, it was late, it was dangerous. It was halfway up the leg of Hernandez and the studs were evident. I think it was very poor from Cole, and that he knew what he was doing. He is a lucky boy.