Evertonian class made Saturday the real final.

To my mind this season's F.A Cup is all but finished. Sure, there is one game left to play when Liverpool meet Chelsea but whatever happens on May 5th, the abiding memories of this season's competition were cemented in my conscience on Saturday.

Sunday's football schedule was depressing fare all round. From Ashley Young's latest ludicrous tumbling act, to Chelsea and Manchester United fans disgracing their clubs, to the unfathomable goal that never was for Juan Mata, the whole day just seemed to strip bare the current wounds of football and poke at them with a sharp object. However, I'd rather not focus on the numerous distasteful aspects of yesterdays matches here, and casting my mind back just 24 hours further allows a smile to wash over my face.

Of course, it's much easier to say this when your team wins a derby at Wembley and books their place in a final, but the sense of pride that Saturday brought runs deeper than the 2-1 scoreline. Liverpool as a city put on a show of footballing class, dignity and respect that the all London semi final could not begin to compete with. 

In their infinite wisdom, the powers that be decided that due to the perceived unsavoury nature of the Merseyside derby, a ludicrous kick off time of 12.30 was required to help minimise trouble between blue and red fans. The game's early start meant that supporters would have to take the 200 mile trip to Wembley at ungodly hours to ensure their attendance and wouldn't be able to 'hit the booze' in the pubs due to the early kick off time (little do they know that a 4am crate of lager on a bus to a scouser is seen as an added bonus rather than a deterrent).  

There were a lot of anxious people wondering how well the two sides of the city would represent themselves on the grand stage in London and some apprehension surrounded the match in the preceding days. They needn't have worried. The collective appreciation of a Merseyside great in Gary Ablett was moving. The solidarity displayed by Evertonians when they held aloft their numerous 'DON'T BUY THE SUN' banners was inspiring. The impeccable respect shown during the minutes silence for the 96 victims of the Hillsborough tragedy was the perfect example of why Merseyside had put on a spectacle that no other city in England would have been capable of. Before the tribalism began at kick off both sides had displayed a faultless show of togetherness for their city and it's sons and daughters who couldn't be there with them. 

For all the ills that have befallen the 'friendly derby' in recent years, Saturday felt like a huge step in the right direction. There have been other shoots of recovery in recent times such as Z-Cars blasting out at Anfield for little Rhys Jones (if the video below doesn't bring a tear to your eye then you're not human) and Evertonians behaviour at Wembley on Saturday was thankfully in stark contrast to the vile, classless scenes witnessed in the same arena on Sunday night.

Comparing the two semi finals almost seems unfair on Chelsea and Tottenham but compare I will. Reds and blues from Liverpool travelled together through the night all the way down to the nations capital, they filled the entire stadium and could have done so two or three times over. They behaved immaculately, showed respect where is was due, cheered their respective teams on for 90 minutes and then left. The lasting memories of the day will be the mutual appreciation of Ablett, the minutes silence, Carroll's redemption, Brad Jones' deserved moment of joy and Distin's moving apologies. The football wasn't always of the highest quality but the application and the mood surrounding the occasion was. It was a proper semi final day with two proper clubs and two fantastic sets of supporters. The winners left elated and the losers deflated but back home they all went together.

Fast forward 30 hours and a London derby between two of the countries best teams staged in their own back yard was an all round embarrassing farce. Chelsea's fans couldn't even be to bothered to fill their end of the stadium. Apparently travelling across their own city was too much of an arduous journey for Londoners to make on a Sunday evening. If that wasn't bad enough, a minutes silence on the 23rd anniversary of one of the worst moments in the history of English football was ruined. Sickening chants of 'murderers' and boos rang around Wembley for the brief moment of 'silence' for Hillsborough before it was mercifully cut short. We then had the sight of numerous players from Chelsea playing in the game having seemingly jettisoned their black armbands given to them to commemorate the 96 victims. Words like shameful and disgusting come to mind. It was everything that the previous day's semi final wasn't.  

It was all the proof needed that even if Fernando Torres smashes in a last minute wonder goal to hand Chelsea the trophy in 3 weeks time, this years F.A Cup has already been defined by Liverpool's two footballing giants. From a personal perspective, Saturday was everything that derby day should be (minus a ticket to the match of course!). A group of friends divided in their loyalties came together, watched the match, had a laugh and stayed out for the night without a hint of bother. Evertonians offered their insincere congratulations, Reds offered their insincere condolences, jokes were shared, banter flew and everyone had a drink and moved on. It was a day that was shared together and felt like an occasion for everyone. We might not like each others managers, players or clubs in a footballing sense and some arguments will forever rumble on but for that afternoon it felt how I imagined the 1989 final did.  

It may sound patronising and as I said earlier it is very easy to reflect favourably on the day when your team are victorious but the respect I have personally for Everton and their fans was increased significantly this weekend. Most blues I know already had my respect of course. Some have sat with me at the Hillsborough memorial services, none of them buy S*n and the banter is nearly always friendly yet Saturday took it a notch up for me. They behaved in a manner befitting of their club's history and showed precisely why they are a truly 'big club', something that teams like Chelsea will never be, despite all their riches. They handled the sensitivity of the Hillsborough anniversary with the utmost class from top to bottom while never sacrificing their desire to see their fierce rivals beaten. To the average Liverpool fan like myself that means a lot. They dealt with the hollowness of defeat with dignity and despite the fact that they won't be in the final, they left a bigger impression on this year's competition with their behaviour on Saturday than Chelsea could ever dream of doing on May 5th.

No matter how much bile has been spewed over recent years or how much the two clubs have seemed to drift apart, one thing always reminds me of the way Liverpool and Everton should be regardless of the understandable rivalry. In the first derby after Hillsborough a banner was held aloft in the Liverpool end of Goodison park. It was thank you gesture for the support of Everton in the wake of the disaster that read simply 'LFC THANKS EFC WE NEVER WALKED ALONE'. On Saturday it felt like that. Both clubs strode into London side by side and showed everyone why Liverpool is the greatest footballing city our country has.

  

Why simulation in football is here to stay

The Easter programme of Premier League football has crystallized two things: British players love a dive as much as their foreign counterparts and the F.A have proven they they are ill equipped to tackle the issue of simulation head on. 

At Old Trafford on Sunday we saw England international and serial diver Ashley Young produce his coup de grace when he effectively won Manchester United another vital 3 points just ten minutes into their game against Queens Park Rangers. Running into the box, the forward felt a slight brush of Shaun Derry's hand on his torso and hit the deck faster than Muhammed Ali did when Joe Frazier's left hook nearly took his head off at Madison Square Garden back in 1971. A penalty was awarded and Derry was dismissed thus all but ending QPR's already slim chances of gaining a point in their struggle for Premiership survival. It was the latest in a long line of hitherto unpunished theatrics from Young, though he is not alone. Despite the numerous acts of simulation from high profile England players over many years (from Steven Gerrard's star fish impersonations to Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen's penchant for falling over invisible obstacles) we still have the myth peddled to us that foreign players are the the major perpetrators of this unpalatable side of the beautiful game.

Since James Perch and Andy Carroll (both English) embarrassed themselves at St. James' Park last week there has been a media clamouring to kick out diving once and for all. It appears to have served only to make referee's more unsure of themselves and trigger happy. For example, in the subsequent two matches Liverpool have played since the diving debacle at Newcastle, three yellow cards have been dished out for simulation by referees. None were merited. Craig Bellamy, Luis Suarez and Aston Villa's Samir Carruthers were all fouled and yet punished for 'diving'. It smacks of referee's responding to the latest media storm surrounding the game. Diving has replaced racism as the latest media hot potato in football. It is difficult to blame the match officials for being overzealous in these instances given the pressure that is on them. If they miss a blatant dive at the moment then it will be highlighted and they will likely be punished for it themselves. When you see players week in week out trying to con referee's and doing so in such skilled and subtle ways, one wonders what chance the match officials have of discerning whether a player has indeed been impeded or whether he is the latest in a long line of players to seek an advantage for his team by any means necessary.

This is where the F.A come in. A solution needs to be found, not to eliminate diving (that has always and will always be a part of football when you consider the environment the game is played, what is at stake and the fact that players are human and will make mistakes in split second decisions) but to punish the serial offenders. Some players are already indirectly punished on a regular basis due to their reputations that high profile figures in the game and our nations media have helped to forge. Luis Suarez for example, publicly branded a 'diver' by that honourable knight of the realm Mr. Ferguson (the same man who asserted that Shaun Derry 'had to be sent off' at Old Trafford in light of Young's terrible dive) was denied a cast iron penalty in the Liverpool - Aston Villa game this weekend. If he had been Steven Gerrard, Gareth Bale, Ashley Young or any other trustworthy good old British boy he would likely have had the penalty he deserved. His reputation undoubtedly went before him but unfairly so as he was obviously impeded. Plenty of British players have outdone Suarez in the diving stakes this season yet their reputations remain untarnished.  

Gareth Bale has gone to ground more often than Audley Harrison does this season yet he doesn't have the reputation that foreign players like Suarez have because our unbiased, none xenophobic media choose to brush such instances under the carpet. Has Ashley Young been vilified this week? Has Alex Ferguson been called out on his ridiculous myopia and hypocrisy after his comments about the Young incident? Of course not. When Roberto Mancini waves an imaginary card at a referee he is branded a disgrace to his profession, when Alex Ferguson slams players like Torres and Suarez for diving with no evidence and subsequently ignores flagrant cheating from his players our nation's journalists simply turn their heads away and ignore the situation for fear of being banned from Old Trafford should they dare to speak the truth.

As a result we have some players who dive a lot (mainly foreign players) who are punished by referee's due to their public image while other consistent cheats (mainly British players) get decisions going their way. Essentially, the media created perceptions of players are carried onto the pitch by referee's and affect their judgement. This is why the F.A need to implement some sort ruling that retrospectively punishes the players who dive and they need to do it quickly. Ashley Young's dive at the weekend had a significant impact on the survival hopes of QPR and the title race between Man United and Man City. This isn't right. There are variables in football matches that we cannot control but diving isn't one of them. Retrospective bans, highlighting the serial offenders in a consistent manner (rather than our media and ex players merely blaming it on 'johnny foreigner' or the latest media hate figure) and hefty fines would all seem like reasonable and logical steps to improve our game. Unfortunately there is a huge bump in the road obstructing this approach: The Football Association.

Ah, the good old F.A. The seekers of truth and justice in our national game. Destroyers of the ills that befall and besmirch the sport. They covered themselves in glory again this weekend. While the steps mentioned above to help minimize simulation in our game would seem to be universally endorsed by football fans and pretty easy to install, the incompetence of our F.A (the organisation that we would entrust the implementation of any such initiatives to) stands in the way.

This weekend the F.A had two big decisions to make. Both seemed simple enough and two wrongs could have been corrected. First, Shaun Derry's red card at Old Trafford was understandably appealed by his club. It was a fairly open and shut case. Derry's hand had grazed Young shirt, the forward felt contact and decided to cheat to win a penalty. It was not a foul by Derry, anyone with two eyes could see that yet our wonderful F.A have decided that the defender DOES deserve to serve a suspension for 'denying a goalscoring opportunity'.  Who knew that brushing someone with your palm could deny a goal?  

That decision seems illogical, barely conceivable and laughable in it self but fear not because the F.A had a chance to deal out some real justice with a case this weekend that was possibly even more cut and dried. At the Emirates stadium later on Easter Sunday, Mario Balotelli produced one of the worst 'tackles' of the season. Half heartedly chasing a loose ball the Italian forward raised his right boot a foot off the ground and raked his studs down Arsenal's Alex Song's right knee. The Cameroonian midfielder was lucky not have had his leg broken and it was a shocking challenge that merited a red card. Somehow the match day officials failed to punish Balotelli. 

The F.A decided that they could not retrospectively punish Balotelli as 'at least one of the match officials had seen the incident'. I accept that this is a FIFA implemented ruling, but that doesn't make it right. Balotelli could have snapped Song's leg in half and yet the F.A allowed him to get away with it Scott free. It is yet more compelling evidence that such a ruling needs to be scrapped and the F.A need to have the balls to confront FIFA on the rulings obvious deficiencies. Given their track record regarding their lack of backbone I won't hold my breath.  

For all the pining for changes in the game such as the introduction of goal line technology, retrospective analysis of simulation and the like, what would be the point if we were trusting this organisation with such huge responsibilities? They can't even get the simple things right. There isn't a player or fan in football who saw the two instances cited above the same way that our F.A did. There were no shades of grey, there was no doubt over either decision. The Football Association are getting simple things so wrong that it makes you wonder how badly they would screw up any potential major changes to our game. In all probability the media furore around diving will die down soon enough and the F.A will be able to keep their heads buried in the sands down at Soho Square. Given the staggering levels of incompetence that they have exhibited this season alone, perhaps accepting that simulation is here to stay is the only way forward. Would the F.A retrospectively deciding on whether a player has dived or not really solve the issue when they believe that Shaun Derry denied Ashely Young a goal scoring chance on Sunday?  

Diving should not be tolerated in our game as it is morally corrupt but when the alternative is placing your trust in an equally morally corrupt and an also astoundingly incompetent organisation then maybe, unfortunately it is the lesser of two evils.