Fourteen of our trusty men in black were in action during the midweek cup matches, but they managed to keep their heads down and for once none stole the headlines. They did manage 66 yellow cards and three reds between them, with Carmona Méndez reaching double figures in the tie between Almería and Recreativo, but that is par for the course nowadays.

A couple of decisions worthy of note at the weekend, with Puentes Leira helping Barcelona to a single goal victory by turning down Villarreal's appeal for a penalty when Puyol hacked down Víctor and then giving one to the home side at the other end ruling that Ballesteros had pulled back Saviola. Furthermore he sent off Unai after booking him twice, both borderline yellow cards. Needless to say the Barcelona press reported his performance as fair to good whereas the Madrid based press gave him zero points.

Medina Cantalejo also made a couple of controversial decisions in the game between Real Sociedad and Deportivo, most of all when he allowed Luque's equaliser to stand even though he was clearly offside. He also missed a possible penalty when Depor's Romero handled in the area. . (12.11.02)