It was shockingly blatant. For much of the game, Halsey was obviously lenient in punishing the physical side, which might be interpreted as playing to our advantage. (I appreciate teh fact that he didn't book any of our players... but then again, he didn't book any of theirs either! To be fair to the refs, it's the hardest line they have to tread, between allowing some contact as being "part of the game", verses blowing up for each and every contact and driving us toward that horrific vision of a non-contact sport.

My guess is Huth was not punished yesterday because Halsey would have had to award a penalty, I believe (... or would it have been an indirect free-kick?), and he was obviously never going to do that. Could he not have at least warned Huth and told him to cut it out or else? But if Huth gets away with it each time, then he's obviously going to carry on doing it with increasing impunity.

"Respect" ... ??? Phfteey!

The fact no penalty awards were given is as surprising as no mention of the repeatedly foul play in the media. I'm sorry to say it, but until the game is ridded of such tactics, we need to get clever, and Fellaini needs to go to ground when it happens to him.

Say what you like about him but he protects his football club like no other and its about time Davey started spouting a bit more ? it certainly worked before the derby games. It was the same with AJ, Moyes should of came out fighting because that was in a way cheating by trying to influence the ref before the game.

In fairness to Setanta Sports they did draw attention to the issue during their half-time analysis but Hartson more or less dismissed it by saying that Fellaini is a big boy and can give as good as he gets... Fat Bastard!

?Their (Everton?s) only threat before the interval arrived from set pieces or in the hope that the referee, Mark Halsey, would punish Robert Huth for grappling Marouane Fellaini whenever he set foot inside the area. That was some hope. Not even a hand around the Belgian?s neck counted as an offence against the increasingly irate Fellaini.?

Apparently FIFA have slipped in a new law: Law12a, which states:

Law12 shall not apply, if the victim of the foul play is tall and has hair over 36 inches (91cm) in diameter.

When are these incompetent morons going to realise the ball doesn?t need to be involved for a foul to be a foul. If 1 ref grows a backbone and starts making these decisions this blatent cheating will stop. Southgate sent his CH Out with the instruction to cheat because he knew he would get away with it.

As for the headlock, a deffo pen ? it's football not rugby... Huth & Co were told to upset him to get him sent off!

I thought the ref was poor & the fouls he gave against us he was certainly no homer. Saying that, he blew up for full-time when they had a corner before they could take it. That does not happen much & it was inside the 4 minutes added-on time!

Whilst I would not want Moyes to turn into a crying gobshite like him across the park he needs to speak out more. or we will carry on getting jack shit help.

From the first to the last minute at Newcastle they let left their foot in on every tackle, it was a ploy simple as and we said nothing, it took another manager to highlight some of the stuff that went on, does this not give other teams ideas to do the same?

We spent months saying nothing about managers influencing refs over AJ and in that time we should of had 11 penalties through him alone and his confidence became shot and so with it his Everton career. Before you know it other managers will be calling Cahill before important games too.
I loved Moyes?s classic integrity shout, but as a matter of fact he was playing mind games for once and he won, so a bit more please Dave. Like it or not big managers try to influence games before a ball has been kicked, being too nice is a dissadvantage in my eyes.

Too many Evertonians have a persecution complex but all-in-all, we don?t do too bad with most refs, as would be obvious if you also noticed our team?s transgressions!

Ideally he needs to learn off Cahill - I think Tim is a master at committing sneeky "team" fouls and taking advantage of grey areas in the laws in an inconspicuous manner. Fellaini needs to try and be more subtle in his approach to all aspects of the "off the ball" game, although granted it is difficult when you?re 6ft 5in and have an enormous barnet!

So, selective decision-making by cowards, in the main. I?ve heard Oliver Kay has published a set of photos detailing the assaults on Fellaini on Sunday but can?t find them on t?web.