No need to wait until Sunday to write up this section! Pérez Lima's performance on Saturday in the match between Atlético Madrid and Recreativo will take some beating, and is already a candidate for the annual white stick prize! Pérez awarded two penalties one to either side, which most commentators agreed were for dives, but didn't give one to Recre which seemed more than obvious. Worse was to come though, as neither the referee nor his linesman spotted that Agüero fisted the ball in to the net for Atlético's second goal (to be fair though it was on the far post in crowded goalmouth, and only one TV angle showed the infraction conclusively - another case for a TV action replay?). And Pérez rounded things off with a comic incident near the end, showing a second yellow card to Dani Bautista without realising it. Apparently it was the somebody on the Atlético bench who alerted the fourth offical to the fact, and he called across his colleague to inform him of his mistake! He did at least realize that Seitaridis's yellow was his second a few minutes later, but all in all not the best of nights for our dear man in black! (14.10.06)

PS. Maybe we spoke too soon! This was hailed as one of the most awful weekends for refereeing decisions, with over half the games affected in one way or another by bad decisions, including another 11 red cards and eight penalties! Nobody quite matched Pérez Lima even so! (16.10.06)