I cannot recall in all the 60 years+ I have been watching the ‘Orns, anything quite like the behaviour of Jefferson Lerma in Saturday’s (February 27) game against Bournemouth.

The quite extraordinary fact is that Lerma is a quality player and didn’t need to provoke the likes of Chalobah and so raise the temperature of the whole match resulting in the young Pedro losing his head amongst others.

Lerma’s behaviour on the pitch was completely unacceptable. As an ex-referee myself, the least that he should have had received was a yellow card for his first lot of shenanigans and a red for the second.

It beggars belief that there should have been scenes like there were at the end of the game and particularly at a time like this, when there are other priorities in life other than a “win at all costs” attitude, which seemed to prevail in the latter stages of the game.

We had a holiday home in Bournemouth many years ago and I used to take my kids to watch the Cherries when we were there. However any feelings I may have had for them have now gone out of the window, having watched their display on Saturday. In addition the attitude of their manager Jonathan Woodgate, who I used to admire as a player but who seemed to condone what went on was totally unprofessional.

In the meantime I’m looking forward to a return to the Vic and the Premier League later in the year. The omens are good.

Neil Frais

Hazeldene Drive, Pinner