The increase in players diving has been one of the major issues of the season so far, and I found myself caught up in it at Bolton a couple of weeks ago. I was wrongly booked for diving in our 1-0 win at the Reebok stadium, but fortunately the referee realised his mistake and rescinded it a few days later...

It happened in the first half when the Bolton defender Ivan Campo caught me as I went past him in the area, and it was enough to bring me down. I hit the deck and looked up expecting to see the referee pointing to the spot for a penalty, but to my surprise, he was actually trotting over to book me for diving. You could see the shock on my face.

I would never dive, or try to cheat in any way, and I didn't even feel that I had made a meal of the incident. The fact is I was brought down in the area. The Bolton players realised that, and even Campo told me, "I know I caught you. It should have been a penalty." During the second half, the referee, who had by then seen the incident on the television, sidled up to me and said, "I'm sorry, I made a mistake."

It was a huge relief when two days later I learned that the referee had scrubbed out the yellow card. I felt as if it was a stain on my character to be seen as a diver. I really am grateful to Chris Foy for having the courage to overturn his original decision because there are a lot of referees who would have been too arrogant to admit they were wrong.

The grey area about diving is because some players think it is alright to go down if they are touched even a little bit; I suppose they see it as being cute. But blatant diving when you haven't been touched is utterly wrong and has no place in the game. It is difficult for referees, so the onus has to be on players to stop doing it.

England


I was of course disappointed, but not entirely surprised, to be left out of the England squad for Sunday's friendly against Denmark at Old Trafford. I have to say I was more disappointed for my old friend James Beattie than for myself, who I thought was very unlucky to be dropped.

I thought I had an outside chance of making it, but I can't dwell on that now, and will just have to concentrate on playing well for Birmingham, and hope that that will be enough next time. Scott Parker's inclusion is certainly deserved for his consistency, and just goes to show how much competition there now is for places in England's midfield.

Have a good couple of weeks,

David Dunn.