The Football Association have announced that despite almost everyone in the game agreeing that Newcastle midfielder Danny Guthrie should receive further punishment, he will, in fact, escape with just the mandatory three match ban.

The wild tackle which he admitted was deliberate and borne out of frustration broke the leg of Hull City striker Craig Fagan.

However, the FA revealed it could only take further action if it levelled a fresh charge against the player.

A spokesman said: "Every sending-off carries an automatic sanction under the current regulations. The FA doesn't have the power to extend automatic suspensions. The only circumstances in which we could take any further action would be to issue an additional charge against a player. This occurs only in exceptional cases, such as Ben Thatcher's challenge on Pedro Mendes in 2006."

However, the FA spokesman also confirmed that an ongoing review of their disciplinary procedures could see a sliding scale introduced to increase punishments for serious offences.

Who's rules are the FA hiding behind here? I would guess that they are their own. If so, can't they just change them. They are the FA after all!

In this case, Hull manager Phil Brown said that an automatic three-match ban was "insufficient punishment". Professional Footballers' Association chief Gordon Taylor added that Guthrie's actions were "not acceptable".

Guthrie has since apologised, insisting he is not a dirty player, but Fagan will be out for six weeks as a result of his deliberate actions.

Not for the first time over the past few seasons, Tottenham have let their expectant fans down with a very poor start to the season.

Sitting rock bottom of the Premier League with just one point from four games is a million miles away from where Tottenham fans and Ramos himself, would have expected them to be.

The question is whether Ramos should start to worry. The side looked disjointed and dispirited in their 2-1 defeat at home to Villa and not disimiliar to the side that Martin Jol lost his job for developing.

I don't expect Ramos to be shown the door just yet but defeat in either of Spurs next two games, both at White Hart Lane, against Wisla Krakow in the Uefa Cup on Thursday, and Wigan in the Premier League on Sunday, could lead to him hanging onto his job by the skin of his teeth.

Last season's Carling Cup win seems to be a long way away and the excitement and optimism that the triumph generated has already faded away.

The international break ended with some satisfaction for the under-fire British teams. England produced one of their best results and one of their best performances for many years in the 4-1 thrashing of Croatia.

Scotland got the 2-1 win in Iceland they so desperately needed after the disappointment of the 1-0 defeat in Macedonia.

Northern Ireland held the comparatively mighty Czech Republic to a 0-0 draw in Belfast.

Wales put in one of their best performances under John Toshack in Russia although they ended up on the wrong end of the 2-1 score line.

All in all it was a good day for the British teams who have all received their fair amount of criticism. The four managers will be pleased and relieved in equal measures as they sit back and wait for the next installment.

I first saw Theo Walcott as a fifteen year old lad playing for Southampton in an under eighteen game at Swindon. I had never heard of him before but became aware that the great Cyril Regis was in attendance in the capacity of being his agent.

I had been around youth football for a while but I had never encountered a fifteen year old with a high profile agent before. It was clear that the lad must be something special.

He played well in the game and his pace and trickery led one of the Swindon youngsters to get sent off for something of an agricultural tackle in attempting to stop him.

From there on in Walcott's career has been pretty much public knowledge. It looked as though he would go all the way until Sven Goran Eriksson's misguided decision to take him to the 2006 World Cup.

The whole experience and the fact that he wasn't used despite any other strikers being fit seemed to set him back a long way. Since then he has been carefully nurtured by Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and has gradually forced his way into the first team reckoning at the Emirates.

His hat-trick for England in Croatia was stunning. He still has a long and very bright future ahead of him, but I sincerely hope that the media allow him to progress at his own pace and don't build him up into a world beater on the strength of one performance.

Why has Wembley suddenly become a nightmare venue for England?

For years Wembley was a fortress. The team played in front of flag waving fans in a serious show of patriotism. With the possible exception of Euro 1996, England often let down the fans but still they supported them.

Now, with the humiliating failure to qualify for Euro 2008 some of the fans have turned on the players and started to demand more from their well paid, over-hyped representatives on the pitch.

Unused to this justifiable criticism the players have started talking about a total lack of confidence and the anxiety of the fans at Wembley getting to them. Even Fabio Capello has said that he would rather play away from Wembley. He says the pressure exerted by the fans at home is too much for the players to bear.

I wonder if the manager and players have considered the fact that the supporters pay an awful lot of money to be entertained and if they are short changed, they have a right to voice their displeasure.

This is not a chicken and the egg situation. The poor performances came first. The criticism came second.

The players need to look at themselves, not talk about fans draining their confidence.

Joe Cole has said that England will adopt a defensive approach against Croatia on Wednesday in their World Cup qualifier.

Cole says that a draw would be a good result.

"We're working on being strong and hard to break down and we have got the players to do that. Without wanting to sound negative, a draw would put us in the driving seat but we'll go out there to try to win the game. The last time we went out there we underestimated them a little bit. Looking at their performances they are a top side with great players. You need to be solid, tough and compact when you play there - you need everyone's experience on the pitch because it's going to be a hostile environment. Once you go a goal down, its so hard so we need to get off to a good start and get in their faces, shut them down. We have to play with a passion like England should do but not be naive and throw players forward."

There is no doubt that what Cole says is absolutely correct and that on current form a draw for England in Croatia would indeed be a very good result. It is just a little bit difficult for an England fan to hear the truth.

We have become so used to hearing our players, managers and media tell us that we are the best in the world that a little bit of reality comes as a bit of a shock.

Wayne Rooney has come under fire for the lack of goals he has been scoring for England. He insists that his scoring record is not weighing on his mind as he looks forward to Wednesday's World Cup qualifier in Croatia.

Rooney has scored only five times for England in four years.

"I've no problem with it. It's a new campaign, a new start and hopefully we can do well."

Rooney remains one of England's very few world class players and most people will have noticed what else he brings to the team. He showed the creative side of his game in setting up Joe Cole's second goal against Andorra on Saturday.

Teammate Frank Lampard agrees that Rooney need not worry about his recent lack of international goals.

"The thing with Wayne is that he is not just a goalscorer. He is a creator and works hard for the team, creating angles, not only an out-and-out striker."

Rooney insists his only concern is a good team performance and he added: "Croatia are a good footballing team and we know we'll have to be at the top of our game. We'll have to defend well, first of all, and create opportunities going forward. Hopefully we can do that."

In a time of such a lack of great English players it would be a real shame if the media began a witch hunt against one of the ones we have.