Crying foul over penalty decision

I CAN’T say I have any great love of “the beautiful game” of football.

I do, however, share in the frustration of seeing a poor refereeing decision at Windsor Park rob Northern Ireland of a place in the World Cup finals.

What if the situation had been reversed and a Northern Ireland player had cannoned a ball off a Swiss defender’s arm, resulting in a penalty against Switzerland? Would the Northern Ireland manager and squad have risen up as one and declared that no handball took place and no penalty was warranted?

Would the Northern Ireland team have deliberately fluffed the shot? I suspect not, but may be wrong.

So, there’s no point in crying foul of the referee when a poor decision went against Northern Ireland if, in the same circumstances, they would have been only too happy to profit from the situation if the roles had been reversed.