In the aftermath of the Man Utd. / Arsenal 'handbags at ten paces' incident last week, Sunday People columnist Paul 'Macca' McCarthy contrasts the reaction at Old Trafford with the conclusion of Hornets' nail-biting play-off game with Hull KR.

Never mind horse-faced Dutch goal-hanger Ruud Van Nistelroy - Macca reckons if you want real class, you should look no further than Mick Nanyn.

HUMBLE HORNET'S LESSON IN CLASS FOR MIGHTY ARSENAL

LET me paint the picture. Rochdale Hornets
are fighting to stay in business and take a
£50,000 grant from the local council to help
them stay afloat.

Incredibly, they're just a couple of minutes
away from rugby league's Grand Final and a
chance of a place in Super League which could
assure the club's future.

A minute from time, Rochdale are deep in Hull
territory shaping for a straightforward drop goal
which will secure their final place and keep
alive a club that has been on its knees for more
years than it cares to remember.

Suddenly, two blatantly offside Hull players
charge down the kick and break 70 yards for
the try that condemns Hornets to a place way
beyond the breadline, where players face
losing their jobs.

Afterwards, Mick Nanyn, who broke Hornets'
points record for the season, said: "I'm lost for
words really, I'm gutted, totally gutted.

"We've watched the video and there are two of
them offside, but that's life. The referee hasn't
picked it up, he's had a decent game and just
missed one thing."

This is a man whose club could go to the wall -
along with his livlihood - yet still he remains
magnanimous about an official who could have
cost him everything.

There is one quality stamped through Nanyn's
words: Class.

Now project the same scenario on Highbury.
Arsenal have just seen their Champions
League hopes dashed by a stinker of a
refereeing decision. Do you think any single
member of the Arsenal team, management or
board would even come close to Nanyn's
class?

Oh yes, they can make the grand gesture
when it suits them, when vice-chairman David
Dein thinks it might win him and the club
brownie points with his chums at the FA.

So they'll replay an FA Cup game against
Sheffield United in the certain knowledge
they'll stuff them again, whether Kanu and
Marc Overmars break the unwritten laws of
football etiquette or not.

But put them in a situation like the one Hornets
faced or following events at Old Trafford last
week and their silence underlines the sneering
contempt in which they seem to hold the game.

I scoured Friday night's programme for the
Newcastle game for a word of apology or
contrition from Dein or major shareholder,
Danny Fiszman. Not a syllable.

Powerbrokers within Soho Square have been
waiting all week for even a whisper from the
Highbury hierarchy apologising for the actions
of their players last week. Again, nothing.

Late in the week there was a statement which
read as if it had been wrung out of the board
after they'd had electrodes strapped to their
gonads, so terse was it.

Then came Arsene Wenger's putrid attempts
at justification, where the world and its mistress
were to blame for the fact Arsenal have six
players on FA charges. Nothing, of course, to
do with their blatant and flagrant disregard for
anything approaching decency.

Just a quick note here. If Wenger objects so
deeply to the role Sky play in the game, why
doesn't he tell his board not to accept the
millions the company ploughs into Higbury's
coffers or the £600,000 they picked up from
Friday night's televised match.

Then see how readily Patrick Vieira or Thierry
Henry sign reduced contracts. Or how quickly
Ashburton Grove gets built.

But that's a side issue, the fact of the matter is
everybody at Arsenal takes their lead from the
top - and the men at the top have been
uncovered as small-minded and blinkered,
lacking in any last vestige of class.

Dein, for all his urbane, media-savvy
appearance, has been found wanting. He is
the mouth-piece of the board, the single most
recognisable figure - yet not once have we
seen him in action.

He was all too happy to appear on a
nicey-nicey BBC documentary this week,
telling the world how it was he alone who lured
Wenger to the club. Yet ask him to call his
players to account and there was nothing.

An apology at the start of the week stating the
club's position and insisting action would be
taken would not have been an admission of
guilt, but a starting point towards some kind of
reconciliation. It was also the least we could
have expected.

Then again, why should we when Mick Nanyn
possesses more class in his mud-splattered
boots than the whole of the great Arsenal
Football Club put together?