I think Boyd was initially trying to avoid being creamed by Hart, but felt contact as he moved out the way and made a meal out of it, and because of the contact, he appealed for a penalty. Still wrong, and he should be punished. Especially for spitting at Hart, but then again Hart should now receive action from the FA after his actions which were as bad as, if not worse, than Sagbo's against Norwich? If it wasn't for Boyd moving his head slightly, Hart would have completely nutted him! Sturridge's was quite a bad dive too, but unfortunately until the FA begin sanctioning harsh punishments after games for unseen, or initially mis-perceived dives, then players will continue with it, as it does earn their team points and rivals to have suspensions. The problem is that the rewards for success are so great in the modern game and punishments are so light, players see it as a risk worth taking. Suspensions and fines should be given to divers, that'd soon cut it out. Rather than it being a yellow, it should be a straight red; it's cheating, and should be counted as something like a blatant hand ball.
But this situation used to occur in matches years ago, before everyone was diving around like dying swans. How come they now feel the need to hurdle one another to "avoid contact"? Too many people trying to excuse this crap.
"and made a meal out of it, and because of the contact, he appealed for a penalty. Still wrong, and he should be punished." If you read on, I wasn't condoning it at all, nor trying to excuse it. I was merely saying what it looked like to me. I'm pretty sure you couldn't just side-step Joe Hart when you're full on sprinting at him... He was left with no alternative IMO. He shouldn't have appealed for the penalty really.
I know you weren't, but... ...this is what I was getting at. How come these situations never happened in the past like they do now? What did players do before they started leaping, hurdling and diving to "avoid contact"? Even by offering such an explanation you are effectively excusing it!
Boyd dived. First one was a joke. Second, with the shove in the back five mins later was blatant right in front of the ref. Awful reffing not giving that
I agree, he was already on his way down, he didn't dive. Diving is zero contact and throwing yourself to the floor in a manner clearly intended to fool everyone while pretending someone with a sniper rifle in the stands has shot you. Boyd was already going down, hart catches him, Boyd chances calling for a penalty. It doesn't make him our version of Tom Daley does it?
