I've just been reading all the abuse that this chap Attwell has got from Derby and Forest fans alike.

If thoughts were translated into action, there's absolutely no doubt that Stuart Attwell would have his face punched in, or be killed with his car a write-off. Have we all forgotten what Cloughie stood for? His teams were in the words of one highly respected referee “a pleasure to referee”. There was no abuse, disagreement, or snide sniping from anyone who played for Brian Clough and if there was, he'd have given them short shrift.

So why has everyone forgotten what Cloughie was about? And what was Mr Attwell's crime? It was to try and referee a highly charged game where both teams went at it and there was very little good football played throughout the game. The game was frantic and frenetic from start to finish. Only last week DET's Neil Hallam was warning that this was a Forest team that played good football after Derby had produced their best performance against Norwich. Well, on the evidence of this match, neither team showed much inclination for the principles of good football and indeed Calderwood showed a lot of sense in withdrawing Fletcher and Garner before they received second yellow cards. And in my opinion, neither team deserved to win.

So what did Mr Attwell do to incur so much opprobrium from both sets of fans?

For the Forest fans, he disallowed a goal and also blew for a penalty that was apparently not a penalty. For the Rams fans, he didn't play advantage after the penalty, and disallowed a goal. And, oh by the way, he should have blown for a penalty when Commons was pushed over.

For what it's worth, I also think he got it wrong to allow Tito to score – he looked suspiciously offside to me. But he got many other decisions right. From what I remember, Forest's goal was nodded on from Garner when Earnshaw was offside even though he was onside when the pass was made so he got that on right in my opinion. And the lad McGugan showed his studs in a rash challenge and according to FA rules, he had to go, so not a lot that Attwell could do other than brandish the red card.

As for the penalty that Barazite missed, the flag went up so he blew before Addison headed goalwards. That was the right decision. For the Commons push, Commons stayed on his feet (and hands) and so Attwell allowed play to carry on. Another correct decision. Just about the only decision that I couldn't understand was the Addison non-goal. But for the rest of the game, I thought he managed reasonably well.

I defy anybody who is not a referee sitting or standing in the stands to do a better job. I know because some years ago, when I was doing some pre-season training, my team arranged a match against some other blokes but we needed a ref, so it was agreed that we would share it, one of us for one half and them for the other half. And guess who got it – me. And during my stint I got furiously berated and sworn at by my own team-mates for not giving a throw in as the linesman (as they were then) hadn't put his flag up. Afterwards we all laughed about it, but I also remember the relief when it finished – the constant concentration and the need to make split second decisions. And that was just amateur level football.

But I digress. As I said, I thought Mr Attwell managed reasonably well and yes, he made mistakes, but so did the players, and certainly both managers should not be exempt from criticism for providing us with such a poor spectacle of football however exciting it was. That most certainly was not Mr Attwell's fault.

Which brings me to a bigger point: if we are to mock, berate or even worse, threaten the likes of Mr Attwell then some potentially good referees (not me) will be dissuaded from either going for it or continuing in the job. The pool of referees will get even smaller and the chances of less able referees rising to the top increase. So aren't we cutting our own throats when we issue bloodcurdling threats because in time all the dross will rise to the top?

Alright, some of you may say that's already happened – but that's partly a consequence of our constant harassment of referees. Old Big ‘ead would have had none of it, and I'm betting he would have called Addison and Nyatanga for starters into the office this morning for a good bollocking and fined them at least a week's wages for arguing with the official.

For Cloughie – I think the best way to respect his memory is to hold to his principles and both teams and managers should make a pact next time that whoever officiates and however bad he is, there should not be one whisper of complaint either during or after the game.

That truly would make him smile and it would be a game worthy of the Brian Clough trophy if there was also some decent football played on the grass.

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