Gareth Bale's brilliance brings relieving win for Wales

“Several points:

1. It was a penalty. What the Scottish player did was catch Bale's non-standing/trailing leg. The effect of that contact was to knock the non-standing/trailing leg ONTO the leading/standing leg, so that as Bale took his next stride, he tripped himself up; but it was the contact on the non-standing/trailing leg that caused Bale to fall - he did not trip himself up deliberately. In other words, the contact made by the Scottish player was the ROOT CAUSE of Bale's fall; and that's a foul; and that's a penalty.

2. While there is no doubt that a significant number of foreign players do try to create penalty-winning situations, it's by no means exclusive. The Joe Jordan hand-ball at Anfield in 1977 pre-dates the Sky/PL money-invasion by 12 years, so the business of cheating was here long before then. Then there are other current home-grown players who get in the penalty area, near a defender, and with no clear scoring opportunity. They then run (at speed) towards the defender and alter their running stride at the crucial moment to ensure they STEP ON THE DEFENDER'S FOOT. Once that "contact" is made, that's all that is required to create the impression of a foul. Of course if you can get the (innocent) defender sent off as well as conning a penalty that's a nice little bonus. Check out last season's Man Utd v QPR game. Football is great. It's cheating that stinks. Of course these incidents are often facilitated by incompetent officials who, as the "coal-face management" of the footballing world, must have to do an awful lot of toadying to be allowed near a football pitch for senior games in the first place, as they clearly understand very little about the game, and so are ripe for the con. Also, how often do you see a linesman (aka assistant referee - there's a mis-nomer if ever there was one) wait for the referee to make a decision before raising their flag in agreement with the ref. That's a serious level of brown-nosing to the boss, even by to-day's spineless, stab-anyone-in-the-back-to-get-on standards. Modern managers - don't you just love them!

3. Agree with the Welsh supporter on Radio 5 on Friday night who made the point that for all his hard-man image, Joe Jordan has never been man enough to admit what happened at Anfield 35 years ago.

4. We should have won the game 5 or 6-1, we created so many chances.

5. The disallowed Scottish "goal" was because the cross immediately preceding it went out of play before curling back in; not for off-side (!).”

“Bennyhill, the Scottish player didn't think Bale dived, is that good enough for you. And as for bad ref's decisions, did Joe Jordan mind went it went his way?
The Scots can moan but they've done Wales over by blatant cheating and/or bad decisions more than once so what goes around comes around.
We may get a game down here when Wales can't qualify. The FAW never criticise a Cardiff crowd do they? Or Maybe they don't want us singing H&A at a Wales game?
Well done Wales, and Cookie, just keep it going now. It may already be too late this time but we have some good (and good young) players now, keep building despite the FAW.”

“benny, Suarez was slaughtered because he does it all the time and Brenda Rodgers makes out he is a victim when he is a victim of his own doing. There is a big difference, though Bale is no angel, like Suarez, he is world class and does not need to do it.

There are so many foreigners over here now they have forced many home grown players to do the same, football is pretty rotten in many ways. There should be caps on things like they did in F1.

As for the luck, that is sport for you, sometimes it goes for you, sometimes against, you cant focus on individual games, you have to look at the big picture, what goes around comes around, so it will all balance out in the end.”

“Luis Suarez got absolutely slaughtered last weekend for diving,lets see how many of the welsh fans critisize Gareth Bale for doing exactly the same. Before we all get carried away lets not forget Scotland had a legitimate goal dissallowed when they were 1-0 up and the penalty was never a penalty.Dont get me wrong we'll take those 2 pieces of luck, but a reality check is that we lose in croatia and that's us for another 2 years before we try to qualify for a major tournament”

“Absolutely chuffed to bits for everyone in the Welsh squad especially Chris Coleman. Great player for the Swans and hopefully will become a great manager for Wales. The win was thoroughly deserved and could have been more just but like Swans finding it hard to hit the net! Just wish we had a couple ore Gareth Bales! Mustn't let my Swans bias come through but if that had been played at the Liberty we would have won comfortably- Hymns and Arias would have drowned Flowers of Scotland - got to admit there were times it sounded more like a home match for the Scots!”