Bad Boy Barton Back in Bother?

It may be ok on Facebook Joey, but you shouldn`t have been poking Gabby mid-match.

Barton, fresh out of prison and a re-formed character, now awaits to see what the FA will throw at him, for his mid-match poke of Gabriel Agbonlahor during Newcastle`s 2-0 defeat of Villa up on Tyneside.

Steve Bennett let the incident go completely unpunished; however the media have stirred up naturally, given Barton`s past, something that has prompted the FA to comment, who are awaiting the referee`s report on the matter before acting.

Once again Newcastle United, this time in the form of 1st team coach Chris Hughton, went for the “don`t be mean to Joey” stance:

“Any incident regarding Joey is going to be blown up twice as much as it’s going to be with any other player.
“I wasn’t aware of any incident with Joey at all.”

Meanwhile, Villa boss Martin O`Neill stayed rightly well out of the saga, as Skysports tried to suggest that being poked by a ex-con effected Gabriel Agbonlahor during the game:

“It would have done if he had had to pick his nose up from the ground.

“It probably would have if he couldn’t smell or couldn’t breathe. It might have been a problem.”

Quite right so, though I don`t like this mollycoddling of Joey Barton now, he made his bed, now he has to lie within it and should expect everything that`s been thrown at him so far.

It remains to be seen however whether Gabby will start a Poke War, or not.