KEVIN Nolan's impatience with players from foreign teams feigning injury seems to be rubbing off on the rest of the Premiership.

There was nothing unsporting about Nolan's refusal to kick the ball out when yet another Lokomotiv Plovdiv player dived to the ground trying to waste time in their UEFA Cup tie at the Reebok.

The Bulgarians had been pretending to be injured all night and Nolan struck a blow for justice when he ordered a team-mate not to kick the ball out of play but give it to him and he used the possession to help set up Wanderers' equaliser.

The Bulgarian quickly got up and ran back into position for the restart, without receiving treatment.

Everton were like a team full of Nolan's against Dinamo Bucharest last week.

In typical foreign football style, Bucharest hit the deck at every opportunity. Everton had no time for the cheats and ignored the writhing Romanians who soon realised their actions were futile and stopped trying to con the referee and their opponents.

It's about time the cheats stopped getting sympathy from their fellow professionals.