Our midweek match against Porto was one of the most tortuous experiences of my life.
It has been a long time since I was subjected to such a cynical, calculated, and crude attempt at spoiling a football match, aided and abetted by a referee so blind to the obvious gamesmanship taking place it was scarcely believable.
That Porto’s entire approach to the match was ultimately justified in their theft of a narrow win was the final slap in the face on a terrible night for football.
But worse than that, I fear it may give others ideas.
Last season’s clash with Newcastle at the Emirates was a grim watch. Admittedly not as grim as Porto’s efforts this week but it had all the same facets to it – the play-acting, the feigning of injury, the staggering lack of interest in winning, the blatant time-wasting.
It is in scenarios like these that you turn to the referees for succor but, as often as not, they are content to let it all slide, to allow the perpetrators to push it up to the limit and regularly beyond.
I fear we may see more of that on Saturday when Newcastle come to town, having no doubt drawn inspiration from Porto’s pathetic, albeit remarkable effective antics in midweek.
In the Premier League this season, the referees have been told to ‘let it flow’ and to clamp down on the sort of time-wasting tactics we saw punctuate last season, and I very much hope they stick closely to those guidelines on Saturday.
But the reality is Newcastle will go out of their way to muddy the waters. They will use every ounce of cynicism they can muster to stop us building any momentum and we must be wise to it.
At Porto, we simply ploughed the same furrow again and again until it become quite simple for the hosts to deal with. If we come against more of the same this weekend, we have to adapt what we’re doing. We can’t allow the strongest parts of our game to be so easily stifled.
Beware the copycat killers!
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