SO Michael Ricketts is a bad player then is he?

That's the case if you believe the national media who stuck the knife into the Reebok striker after his performance for England last week.

Sam Allardyce ripped into the popular tabloid journalists this week for writing Ricketts off as an international player, saying their treatment of his player was "slightly worse than disgusting".

It was worse than that, it was inept reporting by people who proved you can be at the top of your profession and still be useless.

Those who were convinced by this gutter press that Ricketts has suddenly become a bad player overnight should ask themselves two questions.

Did he deserve his international chance after becoming the top English striker in the Premiership with a side which creates half as many chances as most?

The resounding answer before the game was yes so you have to ask yourself are you going to make a rash judgement on the quality and potential of a player on the basis of 45 minutes' play?

Only a fool would do that. And there were a lot of those working for the nationals last week.