A player who gets sent off now is hardly bothered about it, where as before the Prem came in it was more of a taboo.

Yes, I said taboo.

I am all for longer suspensions. Some players who are not as fortunate in the wages stakes get long-term injuries and never make good comebacks. Remember, the soccer player has a short career.

Fellaini’s tackling has been woeful to say the least since he arrived and Phil Neville is not much better (his tackle last week on Malouda as an example). Other players remember these tackles and seek revenge which was just what the Derby match turned into — a revenge exercise.

I then get to my feet bent over Gerrard a la Roy Keane and say, "Now that, sir, warrants your current spread-legged proximity" Lady boy grabs me by the throat as he is first on scene and I think, "Well, may as well get value for my 5-match ban so I then administer a Duncan Ferguson Glasweigan Kiss, and as I pass the management's dug out i think, "In for a penny, in for a pound" and execute a perfect roundhouse a la Van Damme on the Fat Spanish Waiter, who is screaming in my face, I walk past moysie who shakes my hand, and then down the tunnel into the dressing room (already assuming the ref has showed me red)

Ah I make that Pimms o clock.

Regardless of the above I am still confused as to how Felli actually injured himself — was it the ’stamp’ or the greeks two footed challenge? — is there footage of it on YouTube?

I am also dissapointed in the press coverage and some of the posters on this site — regardless of the rights or wrongs of Felli’s ’stamp’, can you imagine the furore there would have been if it had been reversed with say Felli two-footing Gerrard, Gerrard then ’stamping’ on Felli but being out for 6 months including the World Cup!! Doesn’t bear thinking about the grief Felli and EFC in general would get off the various pundits/papers.

No self respecting football fan, on this site or any other, who has any real knowledge of the game,( and i maintain you need to have played it, the higher the level the better) would condone it. Indeed I have seen teammates round on their own player for such cowardice.

If i see an Everton player commit such a tackle then I applaud the ref who dismisses him and I would berate the same individual as being cowardly. This description fits entirely with the actions of the Greek lad, Steven Gerrard (on umpteen unpunished occasions), most definately Roy Keane, who is without doubt mentally unbalanced (the gobshite saw his action as justice for verbal abuse he took from Haarland after he had injured himself trying to foul the lad from behind!) and most certainly Nolan... whose foul on Anichebe was as bad as I have ever seen.

These players should possibly have been the subject of prosecution or at the very least, the condemnation and punishment from the PFA who mysteriously remain silent when their own members conduct such serious assaults on each other.

We’ve got the technology so hammer half a dozen of these cowards (retrospectively if necessary) and these ’tackles’ will stop soon enough. But you really do have to ask why the overpaid clown Gordon Taylor remains so quiet about such acts.

As an aside, can you remember the three players (all very diminutive) that the criminal Gerrard has topped in the derby (with his full body weight behind two locked legs)? It's strange that he never got round to picking on lads of a similar stature and not dissimilar to that other red legendary coward Souness who topped smaller players (usually in the opening ten minutes of a game) but never went near genuine hard players (he was terrified of Jimmy Case at Southampton and pulled out of many a tackle with less safer bets, as did Gerrard with Viera etc etc).

The greeks tackle was a bad one and if Fellaini had kept his feet firmly planted on the floor his ankle could easily have been broken.

Did Fellaini know what he was doing, yes I think so, but if you see a tackle like that coming in wouldn’t you lift your foot?

Sorry guys the difference to me was quite simple, the greek intended the tackle to take the man out. As a result of that his feet where in the wrong place, so just where was Fellaini supposed to put his?? Self preservation is right, didn’t look pretty but the situation wouldn’t have arisen if the foul wasn’t committed.
As it is, how bad would the injury have been IF Fellaini had just let him plough in?

I’d lift a leg to get out of the way of that and if my foot came down on the opponent's ankle as a result, sorry but it shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Maybe it is unreasonable to suspend the Greek for 6 months, but it is also unreasonable to only give a three-match ban. There should, at the least, be a heavy fine imposed and an extended ban.

The same game also saw other fouls deserving multi match bans for Taylor but he got away with nasty fouls too. Any idiot claiming the heat of the game deserves the same treatment as some drunken gobshite fighting of a weekend blaming a few too many shandies but you’ll never see it happen.

My interpretation of the Fellaini incident is that the two of them should have walked, showing studs is a red card shot, unfortunately after that red card the ref ignored niggling shit between other players for the rest of the game.

One task only required, forget the game just sort Gerrard the starfish out. Ha ha.

I stated my opinions, which are wholly different, Fellaini has his moments, and has been lucky in some respects to have not been sent off both this and last season. He does need to learn to tackle properly.

But in reality, if the Greek had attempted a proper tackle, rather than fly in at Fellaini — there is no attempt to play the ball there whatsoever by him — if the tackle had been proper, then none of this would have happened.

You could even blame all of this on the Ref, in failing to control the game properly, the ’tackle’ or should I say lunge by Carragher on Pienaar in the first few minutes was laughable.

This club and team and management represent something higher than such conduct on the field. Irrespective of our lack of success in recent years, no-one can accuse this team of foul play, play acting or cheating of any description. I’ll be honest, there have been times when I have wished we have been a little more ’streetwise’ with our behaviour, but then I see the likes of Mascherano, Carragher, Gerrard, Torres, Alonso and Ngog rolling, writhing,card waving, starfishing and ’topping’ to gain an advantage (4th place please!) and I honestly thank Christ, Jehovah, Allah, Tom Cruise, and whoever else is in town that this club has never stooped to such levels.

Like or loathe DM, his teams are honest and long may it stay that way... your Great Grandads chose this club for a reason lads, leave the dishonesty for the pondlife illegitimi over the way there.