Desperate Houllier whinges about penalty decision

Last updated : 29 December 2002 By Chris Parry
I reckon he did too, but that's football I'm afraid Gerard!

The Liverpool manager said:

"I'm not blaming Mr Winter as he was conned by the dive of the player. What I don't accept is the fact that the referee said my player had pulled a shirt. You can see on the video that he didn't.

"I asked John Arne Riise and he's very honest and fair, and said he didn't pull the shirt. He was very unhappy as he felt it was unfair. If a penalty is given every time there's a physical contact between two players in the box and the striker dives, as Jeffers did - and he's a great comedian, by the way, with that dive - there would be 50 of them every game."

"I'm quite prepared to draw against a team that gets a good goal, but I feel frustrated and disappointed when you see an incident like that. You've got to trust the referee and, in that circumstance, he probably didn't have a good angle. But there's no ambiguity on the video - it was not a penalty.

"What I can't accept is that he gave a yellow card so I hope the referee will review his decision and rescind that card. The one who should have got the card was the diver. I have sympathy for the referee as it happened quickly at the end of the game in a lot of rain, but I'm very angry at Jeffers as he has more qualities than doing that."