I DIDN’T want to spend the whole of this column whinging about the standard of refereeing in this country but it’s not been a vintage week for the men in black has it?

In our game at Brighton alone there were a number of incidents that would cause me concern if I was the head of the referees association… and that’s before we touch on the rest of the weekend.

Firstly, the Glenn Murray penalty.

Murray is extremely clever in that he manages to get himself into a position where he can tangle his legs around James Tarkowski’s and then hit the deck.

But the incident has happened in full view of the linesman and I don’t see him raising his flag to indicate a foul at any point.

Instead, the penalty is given by the referee who is at the other side of play – behind – Murray and Tarkowski. Thankfully Murray skied the penalty so badly that I believe it landed later on Saturday night somewhere on the M23.

Next up is the Tarkowski elbow into the ribs of Murray.

Now, I should point out that I’ve no issue with the FA looking at this because I think it’s a moment of stupidity from Tarks.

There’s no need for him to get involved, at least not in such a blatant way but if he is handed a three-match ban by the suits at Wembley then he’ll learn a very valuable lesson in the hardest possible way.

I do have a slight issue in that the referee – at least from the TV footage replays – appears to be looking in that direction. If he’s seen it then why not deal with it?

Finally, the dive from Brighton sub Jose Izquierdo was so laughable, the FA should insist on the Colombian joining the panto!

Again, no action will be taken because he didn’t ‘successfully’ deceive the match official.

Contrast the above ‘injustices’ with the fact that Saturday’s visitors Spurs will have both Harry Kane and Dele Alli available despite two shocking challenges, both of which should have been straight reds.

Because they were both booked, the FA can’t take retrospective action, despite the universal opinion being that they deserved to head for an early bath, red card which would have ruled them out of our teatime clash this weekend.

On a much cheerier note, the Premier League table is looking very healthy indeed and with a bit of Christmas spirit, the start to 2018 could look even better!