Dermott Gallagher, a former referee and is part of the PL referee's association (or something like that) has said that the penalty was given for a foul on Rodriguez.
Do you definately mean Gallagher? I know that when they were referee's, I was often getting Gallagher and Mike Riley confused, and Riley is currently head Professional Game Match Officials Board (which in my head means he's the head of referee's).
Where did he say it? I don't think he is with PGMO but he probably does have the inside track with some people. I think he is right though, giving it against Guzan is even more implausible. Btw just had another look at the first one, it looks like Puncheon is well offside, however the ball comes back off a Villa player so correctly not penalised.
I am listening to 606 from last night and Blackmore has come on and said that Halsey at half time said to Saints coaching staff he gave the pen for the Guzan challenge.
You're right, added to that he was saying something along the lines of Saints deserved the three points overall (or perhaps he said that at the end) - all this dive-gate malarkuy is distracting me!
Watched MOTD using a bit of time-shifting [always do this because it never appears on iPlayer other than live] and went back to various bits of the action, including Hansen's comment. Yes, the lads were being noisy over the penalty decision, but Hansen did say that although he'd seen Saints play better, they deserved the 3 points overall. I'm obviously biased, but I agree with him. The quality of play and the way we opened up Aston Villa, at times, was excellent. And we played pacey counterattacking football along with the tippy-tappy stuff. It was great to see them charge forward. There was one point where the ball was passed to Rickie, and he swept it to Rodriguez at full pelt, out on the wing, and then Rickie got on his bike too and charged into the danger area - and he wasn't slow in getting there either..! He's found some pace in that 30 year old frame of his.
If we had scored a second in the first half which our play deserved, we would of hammered Villa. The only concern was the way from being on top we reverted to Stoke mode in the last 15 mins again, if Villa had scored they probably would of got another one. Not our greatest performance yesterday but it was all about the 3 points. Villa look doomed and there fans know it.
True Archers. Watched the highlights again and both Jrod and Punch could easily have scored and we would have been home and dry!
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...ating-start-to-season-behind-him-8450341.html / Poor quality reporting and one really bad error!
Can't wait to see this Luke Evans in action, sounds like a real prospect. As for Hansen, I'm convinced he was going to say "I've seen Saints play better and lose", which would be kind of a compliment, indicating we have toughened up a bit/got better at closing out games (although we still have room for improvement in that department in my opinion).
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/sport-opinion/tom-ross-column-aston-villa-1211432 More opinionated clap trap.
