Stoned

They say what goes around, comes around, and that certainly seems the case where the Rolling Stones are concerned. I remember their Voodoo Lounge tour in 1995 with great affection.

I had tickets for one day of their Wembley Stadium dates, and went with my next door neighbour to see all the action. I vividly remember Symphony for the Devil as a highlight, as Mick Jagger suddenly appeared near the roof of the stadium to belt out the number over most of North London.

The Stones needed to cancel one of the dates for some reason, so I was able to go again as my mate 'Dodgy' Dave Jones had tickets for the original  but could not make the reschedule. That gave me a chance to take SWBMO to Wembley as I was still in the impressing phase of our relationship. I enjoyed it as much as the first gig and she, too had a great evening.

How time flies. Now the Stones are touring again, although Charlie Watts still had time to visit the Oval yesterday to take in some cricket. So 23 years after that last gig at Wembley, our two girls were thrilled to go to Old Trafford last week to see the old gits banging out their stuff again. No standing on the pitch for them though as new man on the block got some swish tickets in the posh seats. They loved it, as did we all those years ago.After all, it's only rock 'n roll.........

'You cannot be serious......?'

So Howard Webb, the eminent footie referee has apologised for 'getting it wrong' at Old Trafford last week when he awarded a penalty to Manchester United which virtually handed them the league title, and put the chances of Spurs reaching Europe in serious doubt.

He appears to have been the only person in the ground who thought it was a penalty, with Alex Ferguson commenting that they had been a bit lucky, and Arsene Wenger indicating that although he did not see it, it was clearly not a penalty.

Spurs have been unfortunate at Old Trafford before, as Mark Clattenburg disallowed a goal in the Martin Jol era, when Ray Carroll clawed the ball back from several feet behind the line. it earned the referee an entry in the Viz Profanisaurus thus:

Clattenburg, n: the term used for sexual intercourse as demonstrated during an Adult Channel movie shown in a hotel room. Everybody knows its in, but you just can't see it.

So once more it opens up the debate for the introduction of technology to aid referees to make the correct decisions. Rugby League pioneered it, Rugby Union and Cricket followed suit and now tennis players are allowed to query calls in which Hawkeye is used to adjudicate .

Would it slow the game down? Well image a couple of examples, the penalty at Old Trafford is given so there is a delay anyway during which the third official would say 'no penalty, indirect free kick to Spurs'. Alternatively, as happened on Tuesday, Thiery Henry is pulled down in the box by a Chelsea player, the ref waves play on. The third official has a look, and mikes the ref, 'Penalty'. The decision is made, the players will moan, but will eventually realise it was shown on TV so justice is done. Very little delay to the game.

Add into the mix the cricket and tennis approach where each manager is allowed three appeals to the third official. if right they keep their three, if wrong then they lose an appeal. Maybe two per half would avoid both managers questioning every decision in the last ten minutes?

Sadly the football authorities think they and their game is so pure that they do not need these things, but with money the prime motivator these days they need to wake up and smell the coffee. Anyway where is my copy of ' Debbie does Dallas'?