Arsenal 1 Rovers 1

AS Highbury seethed with self-righteous rage over what could best be described as a breach of etiquette, one man stood out from the crowd as an island of inner calm in all the drama, writes PETER WHITE.

For Tony Parkes had already shown himself to be bigger and braver than anything which happened on the pitch with his team selection.

And if ever a man deserved to be vindicated it was the Blackburn Rovers caretaker boss.

The means might have been foul to many eyes, as Chris Sutton ignored current conventions to win the corner which produced Garry Flitcroft's spectacular heart-stopping equaliser. But the outcome was undoubtedly fair and, among all the rhetoric, it is important not to forget that fact.

Parkes axed England's Graeme Le Saux - the sort of decision more established managers might have ducked.

He also asked Jason Wilcox, at the end of a week of personal torment, to play an unfamiliar wing-back role.

Wilcox, happily given a great welcome by the near-2,000 travelling fans, adapted competently and responsibly.

And the response of the entire team spoke volumes for Parkes' judgment on selection. Their commitment said it all.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the way the stoppage-time equaliser came about, it was heartening to sense a renewed drive and purpose about Rovers.

Arsenal's fans and players, however, were furious - their anger perhaps increased by the fact that their title chance has disintegrated - as Sutton seemed to ignore an unwritten rule.

A player gets injured, the ball is kicked out of play and you give it back. That's the theory.

Yet there was a certain irony in that it was Arsenal on the receiving end. For a long time they were known as the most cynical of teams.

Cases of pots calling kettles black sprang immediately to mind.

Post-match opinions were to the point.

Parkes was honesty personified. It was, he said, against the spirit of the game but it brought a point which was needed and welcome.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger advocated "fair play" but rightly pointed an accusing finger at his own players for not defending the corner properly.

And I couldn't better his eloquent description of the goal - "A little bit of God, a little bit of Blackburn and a little bit of our guilt." Personally, I believe such matters should be - as they once were - the province of the referee who has power to stop the game whenever he feels it necessary.

Professional footballers are paid huge sums to win. True sportsmanship can still exist on the park pitch on Sunday mornings.

But, like it or not, the Premiership is big business. It may be sad but that's the real world.

Definitely different if the opposition concede possession for one of your players but Arsenal put the ball out for Stephen Hughes who was, incidentally, suffering no more than a severe case of cramp.

If Parkes was first in the queue for the bravery awards, referee Mike Riley was at the back with such an inconsistency of standards he threatened to reduce the game to a farce. His judgment on many occasions could be seriously questioned and, while it was bad enough that there were nine bookings from an official who had little meaningful communication with the players, it could have been worse.

Parkes said afterwards: "The referee, I thought, had lost it." He was spot on.

Fortunately, Rovers didn't lose 'it' and never gave up the hope that they could salvage something.

When it came to a battle they showed real bottle. Matching Arsenal's system of three centre backs, they were second best in the first half when Tim Flowers made two saves of genuine quality but then dominated the second without coming as close as an early Sutton strike which was well saved.

It had looked ominous when they went behind in the 19th minute.

Dennis Bergkamp, who surprisingly faded after the break, whipped in a wicked cross, Martin Keown flicked a header against a post and there was David Platt to sweep in the rebound.

The second half was a different story. Without showing too much penetration, Rovers were quite clearly the better side. Henning Berg and Colin Hendry had Bergkamp and Ian Wright tied down and there were few threats to their goal.

But, for all the possession you wondered just how they might conjure up an equaliser.

Then the impressive Hughes went down, Patrick Vieira kicked the ball out and, after a delay, Rovers threw it to Nigel Winterburn.

He dwelled on it, Sutton closed him down and won a corner. We were in the 92nd minute as Kevin Gallacher drove it into the penalty area and Arsenal had lost their concentration as Flitcroft charged in to thunder a spectacular strike high into the net from a dozen yards.

Rovers and their fans went wild with joy, Arsenal and their fans turned ugly, with much of Highbury a cauldron of hate.

And the referee's 'Alex Ferguson stopwatch' went on and on and on . . . .

Almost eight minutes of "extra time" was played before justice was done with the right result, even if there was a feeling it came by the wrong method.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.