David Sheepshanks comes to the defence of Pablo Cou¤ago, welcomes the Club's new Academy intake and questions UEFA's thinking on goal-line technology...

Good afternoon and welcome to you all, including our visitors from Queens Park Rangers.

With two good wins under our belt in the last couple of weeks, we are well-placed to push on and grasp the Play-Off opportunity that beckons, although nobody needs reminding that there is no room for any slip-ups with so many clubs bunched together.

The pressure will no doubt build on those above, possibly more than for those of us in the chasing pack. Although we are largely a new team since we were last in this position in 2005, there is nevertheless plenty of experience on and off the field amongst those of us who were involved, both then and before in Play-Off situations. Hopefully, we can use this experience to help take the pressure off our players as much as possible in the run-in.

This afternoon we entertain Queens Park Rangers, a club that has been revitalised following the combined investments of Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal. Luigi de Canio has recruited attractive players to Loftus Road and they are already showing themselves to be a significant force as they blend into a team. Notwithstanding a few injuries and Pablo's suspension, we will need to be at our best this afternoon and I am sure those players who come into our side will be full of determination to prove a point for the future.

Pablo hard done by
The FA rejection of our appeal against Pablo Cou¤ago's red card at Scunthorpe was a major disappointment. Pablo was subject to some thoroughly unpleasant and unmerited headlines in the national press for several days after the so-called `spitting incident' at Scunthorpe last week. Jim Magilton quite rightly immediately said that, if the allegations were proven, the player would suffer the consequences as there is absolutely no place for such conduct.

However, because the incident was not easily seen on the day and, also, because Scunthorpe initially only had one video angle, given the delays of the Bank Holiday weekend, it was not possible for us to view the close-up video until Tuesday/Wednesday this week. Close inspection reveals not only the elbow in the face that Pablo received, drawing blood to both his nose and mouth, but also that he spat blood on the ground and not at the player's face.

Nevertheless, the sending-off offence itself was for violent conduct and, while Pablo maintains that his arm merely pushed the Scunthorpe player's hand away from his face in defensive fashion, this was partially obscured on the video and the FA have given the benefit of the doubt to the referee and not the player. They have therefore upheld the three-match ban, although they have not ruled our appeal to be a frivolous one as has been the case with some other clubs' appeals, and he will therefore be available for our home match with Norwich on 13 April.

As a member of the FA Board, I entirely support the FA campaign for respect in the game and, particularly, with regard to treatment of referees. Having viewed the section of play that led to the red card incident several times on video, it is not clear how much the referee saw and how much he didn't. However, what is clear to me is that if we are going to protect referees, as we should, then there needs to be corresponding protection of the most skilful players who are deliberately targeted, covertly fouled and physically battered in an effort to nullify their prowess.

Pablo was very clearly badly elbowed prior to the incident and blood drawn without any protection from the referee. That would not condone any retribution from Pablo: however, the video did demonstrate a level of restraint on his part ... so I think he is most unfortunate to be penalised in this way.

While we miss Pablo for three games, we will hopefully have both Shefki Kuqi and David Norris back much quicker than was originally anticipated.
Danny joy
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Danny Simpson to the Club on loan from Manchester United. I know Jim had been monitoring Danny's progress at Old Trafford for a while and he's delighted that the player jumped at the chance to come here.

Sir Alex Ferguson spoke of Ipswich being a good footballing team, which was nice to hear, and we wish Danny every success in his time here.

UEFA's mixed messages
While talking about officialdom, it was to my mind particularly disappointing that FIFA and UEFA saw fit to reject the proposals put forward by the Premier League for the introduction of goal-line technology.

I can empathise with Michel Platini's personal view that we need to retain `football values'. However, I cannot agree that we can simply turn our back on modern day technology altogether. It is here to stay and, with so much at stake for pivotal decisions like goals, I cannot see why we would deny ourselves access to the proof of certainty _ at least at professional level.

The rather more perplexing proposal that came from UEFA to the recent International Football Board was that, instead of video technology, we should have four assistant referees rather than two and that two of these should run the goal-line in order to rule on goal-line and penalty area decisions.

Imagine being the assistant referee making a decision against us at the North Stand end, or any of the more hostile home ends in the country! I do not think that any of us could be sure that the fear of intimidation would not come into play! Furthermore, we have a shortage of recruits to become referees in this country as it is and such a move to require six officials at a match rather than the current four would surely only exacerbate the problem.

Welcome to the Academy
Last week, we held the Academy induction for the eight latest recruits to become scholars next season, together with their parents. As I have reported before in this column, it is always an exciting occasion. We look forward to the opportunities for these young players to become the stars of tomorrow with an air of anticipation.
This year, we have five players who have come through from the younger age groups in the Academy _ two of them since they were eight years old (Jamie Griffiths and Tom Eastman) together with two from our special stamping ground in Ireland (Ronan Murray and David Cawley) as well as Aleksander Stensrud, our new young goalkeeper from Norway. Billy Clark, Luke Hyam and Seb Dunbar make up the eight and have already featured for the U18s this season and, just lately, played in the reserves.

Ex-players' dinner
Last night, we held the 29th annual ex-players' reunion dinner in the Galleria, with more than 60 former players attending, including such stalwarts as Roger Osborne, Mick Mills, Jason Dozzell, Ian Atkins, David Linighan, Ted Phillips, Ray Crawford, Kevin Beattie, Alan Brazil, Chris Kiwomya, John McGreal and many more, plus former coaches Cyril Lea and Bobby Ferguson.

Bryan Hamilton and Simon Milton have now taken over the leadership of the event while still benefiting from the inimitable support and experience ofPat Godbold. Our ex-players form a major part of the heritage of this Club and I know you will join me in expressing a warm welcome to them all this afternoon.

I hope that their presence can inspire our stars of today into another strong home performance in our quest for another win this afternoon.

We expect a good crowd today so, as ever, thank you for your fantastic support. Let's hear it for Jim and his players!

With best wishes.

David Sheepshanks