Wanderers have had good reason to be grateful to a trio of fair-minded referees.

Graham Pooley admitted he was wrong to show Jimmy Phillips the red card at Birmingham, Gurnam Singh confessed a similar mistake when he booked Nathan Blake at Portsmouth and Ian Cruikshanks' decision to check the match video led to the FA clearing Blake after his sending off at Stoke.

But there are others who, putting it bluntly, appear to have it in for Wanderers!

Burnden fan Don Grindrod, whose family are season ticket holders in the Manchester Road Stand, has produced statistics to suggest that Paul Alcock of Redhill has overtaken Ian Wilkie of Chester-le-Street as Public Enemy No 1. He had his worst fears confirmed when he saw Mr Alcock's name in the programme for the Chesterfield cup tie and reckons the defeat made it a far from magnificent seven out of seven.

The Alcock jinx list of previous seasons reads:

94-95 - Southend (away) lost; Notts County (away) drew; Swindon, Coca Cola Cup (away) lost; Portsmouth FA Cup (away) lost.

95-96 - Everton (home) drew; Blackburn (away) lost.

Mr Grindrod also whinces when he sees Gerald Ashby officiating in Bolton games.

He reveals the startling statistics that: "Wanderers' prolific goalscorers have failed to score a single goal on Mr Ashby's last three visits to Burnden - 95-96 v Aston Villa and Southampton and this season v Wimbledon in the Coca-Cola Cup quarter-final."

But he says the records point to Wanderers winning promotion this time round.

"In 94-95 when we suffered our heaviest defeat of the season, 3-0 away to Barnsley," he says assuringly, "the referee was John Brandwood from Lichfield and, yes, I'm sure you've got the idea, in our 5-2 reverse at Southend the referee was ... Mr John Brandwood from Lichfield!

"Perhaps Colin Todd can get the League to appoint Gurnam Singh to all our away matches (four victories on the trot at Bristol City, Charlton and Millwall in 94-95 plus Portsmouth this season). Bill Burns from Scarborough is also a lucky mascot for us - he could handle our home games.

"Hopefully in 97-98 when we are back where we belong, Messers Alcock and Wilkie can be sent a rabbit's foot by the club with a view to removing the hypnotic effect their refereeing has on the Wanderers style of play and results."

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