How unjust!

[Westman]

Lampard got a straight card that should not have been. He got the ball! If a card should have been given, it should have been a yellow. Even that would have been questionable. The KOP player overdramatised and the ref seemed too happy to oblige. Moments earlier a KOP player had a similar tackle on a Chelsea player and got no ball. The Chelsea player actually tried to avoid the tackle and did not dramatise it. An obvious yellow card tackle went uncarded.

Liverpool had looked the better team but got an unjust victory because of the ref and their pretense. Is this the only way Liverpool can win anymore?

[Lazie]

For 88 minutes I thought I was watching Boro (red) vs Birmingham(blue). This result is even better since the pretenders from Anfield have to visit the Empire.

[Westman]

Lazie, Liverpool played better in the first half but the red card marred the second half and we will never know what a fair outcome would have been. Maybe Liverpool would have won. But in so many of their games they have looked better but ended with a draw. It is sad to see a game between two good teams end the way it did. What was the saddest of all was that the Chelsea player, who was savaged without a card for his attacker just monents before the red card, later started to go down whenever he was barely touched.

[Peter R]

Whenever a ref's incompetence (or genuine mistake) leads to giving one team an advantage over another I am not happy; if the team with the advantage happens to be "my" team which then goes on to victory, I would always see the victory as tainted.

I didn't see the match but listened on the radio uo to 6 minutes left and I unfortunately had to attend to other matters and didn't hear the end of the match.. I was cussing blue as I had anticipated a 0-0 draw...so I am delighted with the result, notwithstanding the ref's decision on the red card.

So the visit to Old Trafford (or as Paul Marin says Old Toilet) is set up...suffice to say that every game is critical #1 to #38..but of course with things getting tighter the importance is amplified. I hope that the underwear (too many draws) will not come home to haunt the Kop.

[Mosiah]

Are you serious?!? The tackle is on youtube. Take a look again.

I guess if he had broken the other guy's foot in 5 places, maybe, just maybe, you'd think differently.

[Westman]

I have looked at it many times as well as the tackle that Gerard made two minutes earlier. Gerard's was worse and he did not even get a card. Lampard got the ball. As I said, if he was to be carded he should have received a yellow, especially since the other tackle did result in a card. A huge difference is that a Chelsea player tried to avoid a tackle and did not dramatise it. The Liverpool player on the other hand did everything to make sure the ref gave his opponent a card. Later in the game the previously aggrieved Chelsea player, knowing what worked with the ref previously, tried to dupe the ref into getting calls. It is sad when players beleive they have to resort to that.

Until the point of the red card, Liverpool had looked more threatening. However, I believe there was an impbalance later on. I like both teams and I like good football, even though I am a Man U fan. I never like to see a good game spoilt by such unfairness.

[Mosiah]

Can't say anything about the other calls, and I appreciate what you're saying about the red card, esp. in light of everything else.

Since I only saw Lampard's tackle, it's all I can talk about. Sliding in with studs up is very dangerous and usually results in a card. Sliding in with high studs, that's a little more grievous. If the ref believes the action was ridiculously cayliss, or there was some intent to cause injury - straight red.

Having said all that, I would have gone for a yellow card myself, but I can understand the red.

[Peter R]

That is something else I don't like...overacting when fouled! Players should get a card for that!

[Paul Marin]

Westman, I personally think Riley is the WORST referee in the prem and that the red card will be rescinded.

However, were you this upset when Rob Styles gave Chelsea an unjust penalty (Lampard scored to tie) at Anfield last year? Or when William Gallas (while at Chelsea) had a clear hand ball in the box again at Anfield in a game referred by guess who? - Mike Riley.

Just curious.

[Westman]

I do not like any glaring bad call, regardless of the alleged offender or beneficiary. Last season I was very annoyed when Pretty Boy Ronaldo on my Red Devils team would go down when touched or even without being touched. He actually got such a reputation for it that when he was really fouled refs sometimes wouldnt give him calls because of his acting.

Alonso and Lampard have a history of skirmishes and it appears to some that Alonso made sure Lampard got sent off. You would not see two English internationals doing this to each other on these two teams.