“I have spoken to Paul three times to give him support as he was very shocked – it is something you don’t expect to happen,” said Philip Don, the Premier League’s referees’ officer. “He’s obviously going to think about his future – whether he continues as a referee has entered his mind.
“When things like that happen you have to consider your place in the game, but I am sure I will see him refereeing in the Premier League in a couple of weeks.”Don said it was the worst violence he had seen towards a match official in English football. He said: “There was an incident last season when David Batty pushed David Elleray when he sent him off in a Blackburn-Newcastle match but it was not as bad. PAUL ALCOCK, the referee at the centre of the Paolo Di Canio controversy, was considering his future yesterday after being pushed to the ground by the Italian on Saturday. Substitutes not used: Croft, Perez, Filan (gk).Bookings: Everton: Unsworth, Short, Materazzi Blackburn: Sherwood, Peacock, Henchoz, Wilcox, McKinlay. Substitutes not used: Ferrelly, Thomas, Gerrard (gk).Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Flowers; Dailly, Henchoz, Peacock, Davidson; Kenna, Flitcroft, Sherwood, Wilcox; Dahlin, Duff (Dunn, 70, McKinlay, 80).

Sending-off: Blackburn: Dahlin.Referee: M Riley (Leeds).Man of the match: Hutchison.Attendance: 36,404.. “People will look at the number of bookings and think there was a war going on, but you can’t say it was a dirty match.”Hodgson, who has had players sent off in successive matches, concurred. “At the moment we are on the wrong side of the referee and the sooner we get on the good side the better. It seemed our players had only to complain or kick the ball three yards to get into trouble.”Mild compared to events elsewhere but a theme of conflict between managers, players and officials is developing.Perhaps Sepp Blatter, general secretary of the world game’s governing body, Fifa, should stop trying to be amusing during the Worthington Cup draw and address the problem.Everton (4-4-2): Myhre; Short, Watson, Materazzi, Unsworth; Cleland (Oster, 75), Hutchison, Collins, Ball; Ferguson, Barmby (Cadamarteri, h-t). After 42 minutes Nick Barmby contradicted the norm, headed into Duncan Ferguson’s path and the Scot swung his huge right leg to hit a post from a range of 25 yards. As the ball rebounded to safety, Everton’s chance of scoring their first home goal in the Premiership this season evaporated into thin air.Blackburn themselves did not manage a shot on target and sadly, as so often this season, the attention strayed from the dross the players served and on to the decisions of the officials.The sending-off of Dahlin after 79 minutes was vindicated by a television replay which showed the Swedish striker had flung his arm into Marco Materazzi’s face, but his dismissal was accompanied by eight bookings which did not reflect the character of the proceedings.”I don’t think Everton are an aggressive team and I don’t think it was an aggressive game,” Smith said. Funnily enough they managed it quite easily.On this evidence Oliver Cromwell had a more cavalier attitude than Smith and with Blackburn acutely aware of a start that had yielded four points from six matches, the game began poorly and descended quickly.

“You want me to analyse the match?” Hodgson asked with a grim smile “That won’t take long. The ball was either in the air or in the stand.”Rarely did it stray from those two undesirables. “You start out in a new job and try to make yourselves difficult to beat,” Smith said, “and maybe we’re stretching it a bit too far at the moment. We’re not taking the extra chance to get a goal at home.”Remember that word “may-be”. Bear in mind Blackburn had lost the services of Chris Sutton, Kevin Gallacher and Kevin Davies and a home back four comprised entirely of centre-backs seems excessive. Add two full-backs as the wide men in midfield and Smith was not looking for a security blanket, he was after an entire bedding store.It was a safety-first approach when Martin Dahlin and Damien Duff made up the Blackburn strike force, but by the finish the tactics had become farcical when four strapping six-footers had to counter the “threat” of a one-man attack that was Garry Flitcroft.

The Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, said that he would consider an appeal after studying the match video, and denied there had been any incident in the tunnel involving Vieira.Wrapped around all this was a football match, which was won by Wednesday because they proved to be better at the 10-a-side game.Before the fracas, only the heroics of their goalkeeper Kevin Pressman had kept them in the match. Ritchie Humphreys should have doubled Wednesday’s lead when he shot wide with only Manninger to beat in the dying seconds, but by then the Sheffield faithful were already discussing how long it would be before they were saying Ciao Paolo – it’s arrividerci England.Goal: Briscoe (89) 1-0.Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2): Pressman; Cobian, Thome, Walker, Hinchcliffe; Atherton, Jonk (Magilton, 89), Rudi, Alexanderson (Briscoe, 59); Di Canio, Booth (Humphreys, 19). Blackburn’s Roy Hodgson, deprived of three strikers, had mitigitating circumstances; Walter Smith ought to have been urgently seeking a very good brief.
Surprisingly, the Everton manager seemed to be only vaguely aware a crime had been committed. The poor man was not considering throwing himself off, surely?

The supporter’s name has been changed to protect the innocent, but the guilty will be named and there was one man in the frame.

Substitutes not used: Barrett, Clarke (gk).Arsenal (4-4-2): Manninger; Vivas, Keown, Adams, Winterburn; Bergkamp, Vieira, Petit (Hughes, 77), Overmars (Bould 45); Parlour (Ljungberg 77), Anelka. Substitutes not used: Garde, Taylor,Referee: P Alcock (Surrey).Bookings: Wednesday: Thome Arsenal: Winterburn, Vivas Sendings-off: Wednesday: Di Canio. Arsenal: Keown.Man of the match: Pressman.Attendance: 27,949.. FOR A moment you thought one supporter had seen enough.