ONE POINT, one goal, one place above the relegation spots.

Not exactly the return we would have wished for after two games, but I suspect one point more than many fans had feared given the difficult start to the season handed to us by the evil Premier League fixture computer.

Widely praised for our spirited performance against Arsenal, some black-or-white pundits were quick to hastily about-face and write us off as no-hopers after our decisive defeat at Eastlands on Monday.

Grim though the scoreline undoubtedly was, I didn’t think we played that badly – in fact it was a lot better than the desperately dispiriting 0-0 draw played out at this ground last season, a video of which has now joined waterboarding on the UN list of banned interrogation devices. What was clear however is that many of our problems remain, and it’ll take more than Joe Cole and a couple of David Ngog goals to eradicate them.

More than anything this game will be remembered for the day Javier Mascherano turned his back on the club, and refused to play in an attempt to twist the club’s arm into letting him join Barcelona for a cynical cut-price fee.

Now I’m not usually one to witter on about players honouring their contracts; football clubs are quick to move on players when they’ve no more use for them, so this cuts both ways.

I’m concerned with more simple things, like honourable behaviour and honest endeavour.

Last week I wrote that Mascherano’s professed love for the club and the fans would have been more convincing had his agent not spent the summer publicly lobbying for a move to Inter.