The Beautiful Game

Gareth Southgate’s “we’d all like to do that” comment about James Morrison’s wild lunge at Cristiano Ronaldo in the closing stages of last night’s FA Cup quarter-final replay at Old Trafford was pathetic.

If Premiership managers can get hauled before the FA for questioning the integrity of referees, they should certainly be asked to “explain their comments” when they suggest that wanting to deliberately injure an opponent is OK.

Of course Middlesbrough were angry with Ronaldo. He’d just won and scored the penalty that knocked them out of the Cup. And now he was showboating in the corner to waste time. But that’s football. He certainly wasn’t doing anything wrong.

We all get angry when decisions go against our team. But kicking an opponent because you’re losing is the behaviour of a lout, not a professional sportsman.

Another person whose behaviour last night left a lot to be desired was Wayne Rooney. He was very fortunate not to receive a second yellow card for shoving Morrison after his foul on Ronaldo, and a stronger referee might well have sent him off.

Rooney was evidently frustrated at having earlier wasted two glorious chances, but Alex Ferguson must be concerned that he still seems worryingly incapable of controlling his temper.