Southgate dives in to brand Ronaldo ‘a cheat’

CRISTIANO RONALDO should think long and hard should the opportunity ever arise for him to join Torquay United. There are more than the obvious reasons why it may not be a wise career move.

The League Two club have made a small but significant stance against the increasing prevalence of diving, by threatening to sack any of their players who attempt to con referees under a “three strikes and you’re out” regime.

Ronaldo would have been on the brink of his P45 inside the first-half, acquainting himself with the Riverside turf in a self-propelled manner that would have bordered on the ridiculous had it not played such a central role in the leaders’ increasing their advantage over second-placed Chelsea to six points courtesy of a ninth victory in their last 10 league games.

It takes no little provocation for Gareth Southgate and Mark Schwarzer, two of the Premiership’s more placid beasts, to turn nasty, but Ronaldo’s actions clearly provided it.

“Mark’s a calm man, and I can’t remember seeing him as angry as that for a long time,” Emanuel Pogatetz said of his Middlesbrough teammate, who Ronaldo used as an unwitting stooge to earn a pivotal first-half penalty.

Pogatetz added: “There must have been a reason for that anger. If he gets like that, something bad must’ve happened. Normally, he’s such a calm guy so he must have been really annoyed.”

As for the first-half incident where Ronaldo threw himself over despite no discernible contact with the Australian keeper’s leg, Pogatetz added: “I don’t want to say anything about the other thing.”

Southgate certainly did. “The man’s cheated, it’s as simple as that. It’s very difficult for the referee, because it happens very quickly and I can’t blame him, but how many times are we going to see it?

“The lad’s got a history of doing it, and in the end it’s cost us the game. There’s clearly no contact whatsoever, the keeper’s done everything to get out of the way and the lad goes down once again. It’s never a penalty.”

Southgate could barely bring himself to discuss Ronaldo’s histrionics, such was his annoyance. “I’m not interested in talking about him. He plays the way he obviously thinks is the right way. You hope some players perform in a manner they should do, and when they’ve got a chance to stay on their feet they don’t try to look for a penalty.”

Unsurprisingly, Alex Ferguson saw the matter rather differently: “Of course it was a clear penalty. It looks as though the keeper hasn’t touched him, but there was clearly intent. What’s Cristiano going to do? He was going to get carted anyway.”

Louis Saha banished the memory of his Champions League penalty miss at Celtic to give United a lead they surprisingly relinquished as substitute James Morrison volleyed an unmerited leveller midway through the second half.

Normal service was restored less than two minutes later as Darren Fletcher headed his second goal of the season from a Ryan Giggs cross.

“We got too excited when we scored,” admitted Pogatetz. “We lost our shape and United made the most of it. We have to learn our lesson quickly.

“They’re a much better team than last year when we beat them 4-1. That tells its own story and they have a good chance to win the title.”

The absence of a more ruthless approach to taking the plethora of chances they are carving out could prove to be the main obstacle in United’s bid to end Chelsea’s two-season dominance.

“We should have scored five or six,” Ferguson maintained. “That’s happened a few times away from home, but you can’t flirt with missing chances all the time because sometime you’ll be made to suffer.”

Wayne Rooney concurred: “If we’d not scored so quickly after their equaliser they could have made it difficult for us because this is probably the toughest away game we’ve had this season. We’re creating chances, but we have to start sticking them away to kill off games earlier.”

United can open up a nine-point advantage with victory in Saturday’s Manchester derby, even though by then the champions will have two games in hand. Benfica roll up for a crunch Champions League clash beforehand, and Rooney added: “We’d rather have the points in the bag than the games in hand. Now we can hopefully build on that against City.”

“It’s a nice little gap, but that’s all it is,” keeper Edwin Van Der Sar said. “There’s still six months of the season left, but I’m sure Chelsea would rather be ahead of us at this stage.”

Middlesbrough — who hit the post through Abel Xavier’s early header — require points for very different reasons. They travel to Tottenham tomorrow after a single victory in six games leaves them three points above the relegation zone. Pogatetz added: “We’re disappointed, because we showed in the second half we can compete with the best teams.”