So following on from the weekend’s blatant PR effort from Fat Bloke to deflect attention from his side’s and his own complete lack of talent, it seems that his big buddy Phil Brown has decided that any lie Allardyce can tell, he can tell better. Any of us at the game last night could see that following the horrendous “Lampard” that led to Hull’s goal, their one and only tactic was to waste time. The miracle is that Old Mother Riley didn’t start booking their players sooner.

However, having got a grip in the second half, Riley removed the only chance Hull had of salvaging a result. Not only that but with six players, including the goalkeeper booked I believe that Hull now have a trip to the FA to explain their behaviour.

Let’s put this into context. Brown is already appearing there this week to answer charges relating to an earlier spat with Joe Kinnear. Now the cynical amongst us might think that creating a smokescreen around a non-existent spitting offence might actually serve to take some of the attention away from Brown and Hull’s disciplinary record and heap pressure on the referee to tone down his report on the game. Given the man’s closeness to that other talentless paragon of gamesmanship, Allardyce, which of us would be in the slightest bit surprised?

No surprise to see Sky majoring on the alleged spitting this morning. Clearly they and the newspaper media are happy to buy these hot air stories as they provide them with the opportunity to spend days in the pub as they constantly rehash the same thing again and again. No need to authenticate the story, it must be true because another northern anti-football manager who has taken PR lessons says so. Far easier to accept any rubbish they say at face value. This is essentially a précis of what Paul McCarthy said this morning on the vacuous Sky news slot wherein a sports journalist reviews the papers.

(Ed’s note – hope Clock End Gooner will excuse this, but just tagging on an email received from Wesley Prodrick after the game. It reads as follows…)

Don’t know if anyone noticed but Phil Brown was already spitting the dummy when he got off the coach at the E******s. Setanta didn’t pick it up clearly but he made a comment about shaking hands just after walking past Gunnersaurus at the start of the programme.