Poll star plummets as Winter sets in

World Cup TV View: What day are we at now? A bit like Graham Poll, we're losing count. Mind you, we're reluctant to wade in on the hapless ref after the abuse he received yesterday. As ESPN's Irish commentator Tommy Smyth put it when the English official showed Josip Simunic his, eh, third yellow, "I've never seen a player get so many cards, unless it's Christmas or something."

Fifa, of course, did their best to support Poll, but noted the three yellows were "a little bit too much", but it was good to see his fellow referees get behind him in his hour of need, much as Eamon Dunphy did later in the day ("He's a clown, a big-time Charlie who fancies himself").

"I'd have said to him after the match, 'Here's a ticket for Heathrow, get back straight away' - and I'm not trying to be clever, he was that bad," said Clive Thomas on the BBC's Six O'Clock News. Clive, for those of you who can be classified "young", was a referee in bygone days, his middle name "No stranger to controversy himself".

Poll's former Premiership refereeing colleague Jeff Winter did the media rounds too yesterday, even turning up on the other end of UKTV G2's phone.

Andy Goldstein: "Ow are ya, my friend?"

Winter, chuckling: "I'm a lot better than Graham Poll you'd imagine. You'd wonder how someone at the top of their profession could make such a mistake. I think unfortunately it will be a turning point for him in the game. There are a lot of cruel people who won't let him forget it. He'll be known as Three Cards from here on in."

We should point out that, in his recent autobiography, Winter expressed sympathy for Robbie Savage when he got into bother for using Poll's toilet before a game.

"The referee in question was not one of my favourite people," said Winter. "In fact, any one who craps in Graham Poll's toilet can't be all bad."

You see? It seemed like some folk revelled in Poll's misery, though you'd have to assume that Simunic, the "beneficiary" of his main error, was somewhat insulted that his face was so forgettable. Anyway, if the ref is sent home can we have a Euro for every "Exit Poll" headline we spot?

At least, despite Poll's gaffes, the Australians got through, and as Billo put it, "There was no doubt about the fact that the better team got the draw." Sounie and Gilesie knitted their brows, before giggling. Billo will never live it down.

Saudi Arabia v Spain. Or Ukraine v Tunisia? Tricky one. In the end we divided out attention between the BBC and UKTV G2 and managed to half see both. By full-time we considered ourselves blessed that we hadn't fully seen both.

The only light relief was provided by Ron Atkinson on UKTV, when he got so excited about a run by Spain's Joaquin he confused shorts for shoulders and sort of accused a former Manchester United winger of indecent exposure.

"He don't half remind me of when Kanchelskis was in his pomp - you know, drops his shorts, same sort of shuffling run, if you like," he said.

Commentator John Roeder's silence suggested he didn't like.

Back in the UKTV studio none other than Jason McAteer had been asked to keep an eye on the Ukraine game but, a bit like ourselves, appeared to have drifted off.

"Jason, is that a foul?" asked Andy of a replay of the Andriy Shevchenko penalty.

"Eh, is that from today?" asked Jason.

"Eh, yeah," said Andy.

Bet Graham Poll didn't care about the rights or wrongs of it all. He was probably trying to catch up on his sleep after a restless night. Bless him, he should try counting cards.