I USED to be in favour of football embracing new technology, until I was on the receiving end in the Masters final on Sunday night.

Anyone who was there or saw it on telly will understand when I say it was a disgrace that Bolton Wanderers were robbed of the title.

We were beating Tranmere 3-2 with a couple of minutes to go when a shot hit David Lee and we went up the other end and scored to make it 4-2.

At first the ref gave us the goal then, after the Tranmere players complained that Didsy had handled the ball, he looked at the video and instead awarded them a penalty, which they scored for 3-3. Seconds later, with us going all out for the win, Ian Muir scored to make it 4-3 for Tranmere.

I’m not for one minute saying the ball didn’t hit Didsy on the hand but it definitely wasn’t intentional.

What a sickener. We’d have been the Masters champions and we would have deserved it because we were the best team by far. I don’t want to harp on about referees but we were hard done by.

It was especially disappointing for me because it was my swan song. I’ve explained before how I’ve been advised to stop playing and I’ve got to follow doctor’s orders. It would have been great to have bowed out on a high note but it wasn’t to be.

Even so, the Bolton fans who travelled over to Liverpool for the event gave me a great send off and I’ll be forever grateful to them for that.

Hanging up my boots means I can now concentrate 100 per cent on off-field activities which include setting up a satellite centre for the Wanderers academy in Liverpool.

I’ll be working with a good young coach in Craig Davies and we’ll be focusing on two age groups, 12s-14s and 14s-16s, and doing our best to tap into the wealth of young talent in the Liverpool region.

It’s going to be tough competing with Liverpool and Everton but we’ll be doing our best to sell Bolton Wanderers to any talent that becomes available.

On the first-team front, it was a sight for sore eyes seeing Gary Cahill on the subs’ bench for England at Wembley on Saturday. It’s well deserved and I’m sure it won’t be long before young Gary takes the next step and gets his first full cap.

It must have given the rest of the lads a big boost — and the timing could not have been better.

I know the fans are deeply concerned that there are no points on the board yet, but I really felt for the players after the Liverpool game because they looked comfortable until the sending off, which was something that baffled me.

Gary Megson has signed another attacker since then, strengthening what I already thought was a strong squad, and I really fancy them to go down to Portsmouth on Saturday and get their season up and running.