The long-awaited clampdown on defenders grappling with attacking players in the penalty box at set-pieces has led to a flurry of spot-kicks being awarded in early-season games.
Here, in Scotland, St Johnstone were awarded two in a League Cup clash against Falkirk while Dundee got one up at Ross County on the opening day of the Premiership.
Down south, Manchester City’s victory at Stoke on Saturday evening saw each side awarded pens when defenders paid more attention to the man they were marking than they did they ball.
As is to be expected, this tightening of the rules has sparked furious debate with the two sides of the argument split along usual lines.
Managers can almost be dismissed as serious participants in the debate. When their teams get the award they’re in agreement, when it goes against them they react furiously.
As for the players, as you’d expect defenders are up in arms, while strikers believe justice is at last being done.
Tele columnist and former Scotland defender Lee Wilkie, however, is among the first from either camp to break ranks.
So far as big Lee’s concerned, the clampdown is long overdue.
And, instead of moan about it, it’s up to managers to adopt more a sensible tactic he was a central part of during his days at Dundee and United.
“I know a lot of defenders aren’t happy about this but I can’t agree with them,” he said.
“There’s been a lot of fuss and calls for this kind of action for a couple of years now but it’s a problem that’s been around for a lot longer.
“Right from the start of my career I used to get annoyed at the number of times I was fouled when I went up for free-kicks and corners.
“I’ve always felt I should have scored more goals from set-pieces but, to be fair to me, it’s not easy to head a ball accurately when someone one is hanging on to you.
“It happened all the time. The worst I came across was the lad Marius Zaliukas when he was at Hearts.
“He would stand a couple of feet away from you, staring right at you and never once looking at the ball.
“At soon as you moved he would just wrap his arms round you and not let go. I would moan nonstop at referees about it but, generally speaking, their attitude was I was a big lad so I should’ve been able to deal with it.”
As he welcomes recent developments, Lee stresses it’s not a case of him having selective memory.
Hand on heart, he can say it was not something he was guilty of when operating in his own box.
He gave away a few penalties in his time but can’t recall any for that specific offence. The reason for that was simple — at both Dens and Tannadice he was shown how to defend properly and expected to take that on the park.
“Some teams mark zonally, some man-to-man, but at both Dundee and United under Jim Duffy and Craig Levein, we did a mix of the two.
“Some of the boys would be given people to mark but, because of my strength in the air, I was usually given a zone when the ball was most likely to come in.
“My job was to attack the ball and clear it rather than pick up a specific opponent and it worked well.
“The key to it all was keeping your eyes on the ball and going for it, not the man.”
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