IT is amazing what sort of reaction a bit of a headbutt can provoke.

Especially if that headbutt comes from an over-excitable Premier League manager after he has been pushed by a footballer...and within seconds of Alan Pardew's frankly bizarre clash with Hull's David Meyler high horses were being climbed upon all over the country.

Yes it was yet another unedifying moment in football and you cannot make any excuse for Pardew's actions and his punishment will be farther reaching than the £100 grand fine and formal warning already laid by his club Newcastle United.

But for people to demand a resignation/a sacking/a birching is pushing it. Football managers do have a duty to act with responsibility - but then so do people in all walks of life.

Brian Clough once slapped a fan who had invaded the pitch and I once witnessed a former East Lancashire football manager spend a large part of a game in an increasingly abusive spat with fans behind his dugout.

They were wrong just as Pardew was yesterday.

And when Alan Shearer - who once kicked an opponent in the head during a match - demands Pardew's removal you know the game is going madder quicker.

Likewise when Meyler is praised for not rolling around after the merest of touches. Why would he? He was not hurt.

If Newcastle want rid they will get rid. We don't need people claiming the moral high ground. It was a relatively minor incident during a football match.

Get over it, the incident is hardly the Bay of Pigs.