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Sheffield United boss Neil Warnock is likely to find himself in
trouble with the FA over his post-match comments today.
After initally saying he'd better not say what he thought of
ref Graham Poll, Warnock went on to describe his performance as a disgrace, and said that Poll was Arsenal's best midfielder
(Ok, so it wasn't Vieira's best game ever but he was carrying a
knee problem for some of it, and anyway Freddie was better than Poll). Warnock also seemed incensed that Poll had the audacity to smile after the game, and threw in some comments about
the 4th official being the same guy who'd robbed them in their
League Cup semi-final loss to Liverpool, as if it meant something.
Arsenal had to play in the gold third strip today because, apparently, the
dark blue second strip would have clashed with the ref's kit.
Warnock will probably be saying that would have been less of a clash than an appropriate similarity.
Oh well, let him moan. So Poll failed to see Sol's foul on Allison. Is it the first time a ref has missed a foul? Yes, the
ref probably should have taken advantage of Allison's being
still down, to stop play after Poll's dumb collision with Tonge had
given Arsenal a big advantage in the build-up to the goal. But mistakes happen and we at Arseweb are prepared to forgive him
this one :-)
Warnock also said that he wouldn't have minded so much if Arsenal had won by a few goals instead of just that one. So perhaps
we should offer them a re-match again, but this time on condition that they let us score 5.
Actually, to be fair to Warnock, at least he waited till after the match
to do his griping. Steve Bruce would presumably have been
taking his men off the pitch. And also to be fair, the United
players responded with great character and professionalism.
We hope for their sake that any FA punishment for Warnock's
outburst doesn't affect their play-off chances.
See match report for more about the controversial goal, and other details of the match.
Having got another red-and-white team in the final, it'll
be interesting to see if we lose the toss for shirts, and
if we're forced to wear the more traditional yellow(ish)
shirt again. Let's hope so (dark blue, yuk!).... and that we play well enough not
to need the ref to be wearing it too! | 
