There was a time when I regarded Portsmouth to be the luckiest team in English football. Through a tiny piece of geographical chance, the fates had decided that never would they lose a player for daring to jump within a yard of another, or for having the temerity to make a fair and clean tackle on one of the Premiership's known divers.
Those times now seem like a distant and charming memory in the modern world of Howard Webb. Yes, Rob Styles was incompetent, yes, he was a terrible referee but he was a terrible referee to all teams and all teams alike. After Sunday's match, the notion of an unbiased and even-handed referee may seem like a dream, but to those for whom this is their first Premiership season I can assure you they used to exist.
Now for the fourth time in three seasons Howard Webb decides to look the wrong way at the turning point in a match against Sky's beloved "top four". Yet again, he makes the wrong decision, yet again he ruins the previous efforts of a decent Spurs performance, yet again he gifts three points to the wrong team and yet again I find myself having to rant on my blog about the biased and pre-meditated actions of the Premiership's "top" referee.
Earlier yesterday I laughed at Man City fans who were claiming that there's a conspiracy to keep other clubs out of the top four, today it doesn't seem quite so ridiculous.