Ben Herd: Football is emotional but hitting a team-mate is inexcusable

Ben Herd / Ben Herd / 31 December 2008 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

In his final column of 2008, the Shrewsbury defender discusses festive five-a-sides, incidents of violence on and off the pitch and the return of the FA Cup...

I hope everyone's had an enjoyable Christmas and got one or two decent presents.

As I said last week, we were training at 9am on Christmas morning; to be fair it wasn't a problem for me, as I only live 15 minutes from the ground. Training itself was decent, mainly a festive five-a-side. I was back home for around 10.30, which wasn't too bad considering my girlfriend and her mum and dad were just getting up - lazy buggers!

We spent the rest of Christmas Day like any other family. You could say I was like an orphan this Christmas (cue pantomime 'Aaaah'), however it was nice spending it with my girlfriend and her parents, who I'm close to. I think my girlfriend doesn't realise that there's a credit crunch going on, judging by the amount of presents she bought me.

The main thing she bought me was a Nintendo Wii, which she encouragingly told me was to keep my fitness up considering I still haven't been playing (Cheers!). As for her, I bought her two tickets to see Take That and some other little presents. Lucky girl.

I was lucky, though, that Vicky and her mum did the cooking. You could've fed a small country with the amount they cooked. However, the good pro' that I am, I ate moderately.

On Boxing Day we travelled to Rochdale and, unfortunately, after taking the lead, we came away with a 2-1 defeat. A disappointing result, which saw us slip out of the Play-Offs for the first time this season. However, on the plus side we got back to winning ways with a 1-0 win over Bury a day or so later.

On the 29th I was watching Match of the Day like most of you and was shocked to see one of the worst incidents of indiscipline ever on the pitch: Ricardo Fuller hitting his own team-mate.

Just thinking about it, I can't recall any team-mates hitting each other - not on the pitch anyway. Football is an emotional game and feelings can spill over, but hitting a team-mate is inexcusable.

Personally, I feel that there are better ways to get your point across. Don't get me wrong, you do sometimes feel like hitting the opposition, but you channel that aggression in the right way. It will be interesting to see what line Tony Pulis will take, as something like this can affect team morale.

Another football story to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons was Steven Gerrard being arrested for GBH. Having not been there, it is difficult to comment, but even us League Two players have to be wary when venturing out.

When I go out in Shrewsbury, I feel as safe as houses, but take for example our Christmas night out when all the lads are together, usually in a larger city - you do have to be more on your guard.

I suppose it might seem a bit of a trophy to have a pop at a footballer. It does seem slightly out of character for Gerrard, after all, for me he's the best pound-for-pound player in the world and conducts himself as a captain of Liverpool should on the pitch.

Stevie G has done so much for Liverpool over the last 10 years or so, it's good to see the club standing by him and giving him all the support he needs.

This Saturday sees the return of the FA Cup - greatest domestic cup competition in the world - with the big boys involved in Round Three. I would say my most painful memory in football was at the hands of this great competition. Ironically, the lowest-ranked team still involved is bloody Blyth Spartans!

After dispatching Bournemouth in Round 2, they now take on Big Sam's Blackburn at Croft Park. Let me tell you from first-hand experience, this is no easy tie for the big boys. I wonder how many times "David and Goliath" is mentioned over the weekend but that's precisely what this match is.

The conditions are going to play their part - it depends how quickly Blackburn get to grips with the pitch and surroundings. I see value in the Half-Time Result market: back The Draw at [3.15] and Happy New Year.