REFEREES and linesmen got slaughtered again last weekend from players, managers and fans all over the country. It's just another example of the lack of respect for authority which plagues our national game.

Managers tell their players to dive, players are only too happy to oblige and fans hurl abuse at officials as if they think it is their right.

Organised cheating is an inherent part of many football clubs yet the only people who get criticised week in week out are the honest people who try to ensure the game is played fairly.

Maine Road last week was a prime example. The linesman made a wrong decision to rule out a perfectly good City goal, flagging that a ball had gone out of play when television replays clearly showed it had not.

All anger was vented at the linesman because mistakes by officials are perceived as heinous crimes.

What went unnoticed at City was that the Stockport goalkeeper, having been embarrassingly dispossessed on the touchline, appealed to the linesman that the ball had gone out when it clearly had not. The linesman, unsure and very likely unsighted in the mass melee, believed the goalkeeper.

So a footballer appealed for a wrong decision to be made and you can bet your bottom dollar his manager was glad he did it yet the person who did his best to make an honest decision is the one who is hung out to dry.

Officials have some very bad days and make some awful decisions - visitors at Man City's last two home games will verify that - but they are the only people in a football ground you know for certain are fair and honest. While players continue to lie, cheat and con and their managers carry on encouraging or simply tolerating it they will continue to get the bad decisions they deserve.