ANDY GURNEY'S three-match ban is utter lunacy.

Talk about kicking a club when it's down.

The Town skipper will miss the start of the season due to FA officials studying a video that was submitted as part of Alan Reeves' appeal against a red card. A wonderfully painful irony.

I am all for footballers being punished for stepping out of line, but this smacks of pettiness to me.

There are clearly too many people at Lancaster Gate with too much time on their hands.

Gurney admits he did swear at the referee during the home game with Reading in February.

If that was the case then why didn't the referee that night take any action?

Foul and abusive language would have seen Gurney deservedly dismissed or at least it should have done.

He would have had no complaint but to punish him and the club in this fashion is ridiculous.

And a £4,000 fine for the club (for the disorderly conduct of its players) might not seem much to the Man Utds of this world but it does make a difference to clubs who are struggling (and failing in many cases) to make ends meet.

I really wonder at times whether the Football Association really possess any common sense.

I hear that Reading were also fined but to a lesser degree.

Bob Holt rightly questioned whether there are degrees of guilt.

I don't want to say any more otherwise I really will start ranting.I think you get the picture.