It’s so easy to gloat and say ‘I told you so’. But it gives me great satisfaction that all those Manchester United and Chelsea fans who suggested my radar was slightly awry over the Champions League (miles out, in fact) will be Red and Blue with rage at the fact I was right about Liverpool.

Now I’m not going to say Rafa’s boys will repeat their 2005 win over AC Milan on May 23 because the Rossoneri looked sensational against United on Wednesday and will inevitably start favourites in Athens.

But it is such a nice feeling that Stevie Gerrard and Co have silenced (hopefully) those clever guys who took great pleasure in putting me down after my April 4 article headed: 'Sorry Man United and Chelsea, Liverpool are in a different (Champions) League!’

'People are entitled to their opinions and as long as they don’t resort to obscenities and personal abuse, all's fair in love and war'


My crime was that I said I was so impressed by Liverpool’s performance against PSV in the first leg of the quarter final that I couldn’t see anyone stopping them becoming European Champions for the second time in three seasons. ‘’Certainly not Chelsea on current form - and probably not Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United, either,’’ I wrote.

The 50 comments recorded under the article (after the most obscene were deleted) include the following:
  • ‘’Some years ago I was going to name my new-born daughter Donna, but then I realised that every female I had ever come across named Donna was irredeemably stupid.’’
  • ‘’You gotta be out of your mind, lady! They were playing PSV, for Christ’s sake. If they would have played any of the other six teams they surely would not have won at all, let alone 3-0.’’
  • ‘’The author of this is in cloud cuckoo land.’’
  • And, presumably alluding to the fact I watched the game in a bar in Spain: ‘'Nothing personal intended, but are you sure you hadn't had one too many sangrias?’’

As well as some constructive comments, there were also quite a few disparaging remarks about Liverpool and Scousers from Manchester United fans who assumed I was from Merseyside (which I am not).

Now I don’t mind criticism. Indeed, I welcome constructive and well-reasoned comments - however critical. And, apart from the ‘’irredeemably stupid’’ comment, none of the above offended me in any way. People are entitled to their opinions, after all, and as long as they don’t resort to obscenities and personal abuse, all's fair in love and war.

Having said that, I’m incredibly bored by the ‘’get back to the knitting/ironing/cooking’’ brigade who believe there’s nothing like male chauvinism for proving they are pigs.

They and the racism element seem to come out in force when I say something bad about Arsenal, as when I suggested it might not be altogether good for English football to field a team made up entirely of foreign players. ‘'Bitch'’, ‘'racist’', ''idiot'’, were some of the comments. How wanting to see the odd Englishman in an English team could be construed as racist, I have no idea. It makes no more sense than branding Arsene Wenger a racist because he doesn't field more Brits in his Arsenal team.

The same thing happened when I suggested in another article that Dilhara Fernando’s final delivery in the Sri Lanka-England game - when he failed to release the ball - should have been declared a no-ball. OK, I boobed elsewhere in the article by confusing Fernando with Lasith Malinga and I later apologised for it. But the accusations that I was in some way racially motivated were beyond belief.

That article has so far received 85 comments, nearly all critical, some blatantly sexist. There were lots of good points raised - like why should a bowler be penalised for not delivering when a batsman is allowed to move away from the wicket at the last moment, to the frustration of the incoming bowler. That’s a very fair comment, which I have taken on board.

I was also accused of being a ’’sore loser’’ (well, who actually enjoys losing?), and of having a ‘’deviously vivid imagination’’. Well, I admit that I’m occasionally a little mischievous in what I write - but I do have my own views on sport and anyone disagrees with them can always reply in kind by writing a reciprocal article for Sportingo.

Anyway, I did predict that I thought Sri Lanka ‘’will come very close to winning the World Cup.’’ So perhaps I’m not quite as stupid as some people would imagine.

From my point of view, there’s nothing more enjoyable than proving my critics wrong. I just hope those who tried to put me down over my Liverpool eulogy aren’t offended that a woman had a better insight into the destiny of the Champions League than they did. Mind you, Milan may well have the final say about that.

Never mind, guys. Maybe if you’re nicer to me next year, I’ll use my mischievous powers to see your team gets to the final! Or in Sri Lanka’s case, win the 2011 World Cup.

Was Donna right about Liverpool - or are they lucky to have reached the final? Add your comment below or write an article giving your opinion.