It’s been a great week for fans of football ‘bust-ups’ (as I’m duty bound to call any incident, argument or fight that occurs in the context of this beautiful game of ours).

Jim Magilton, the manager of those hooped sons of Satan, Queens Park Rangers, has been suspended for allegedly head-butting one of his players after their defeat to Watford on Monday night.

Two days earlier, Stoke City gaffer Tony Pulis and striker James Beattie apparently had to be pulled apart when a row between the pair escalated after the Potters had gone down to Arsenal.

According to reports, Pulis had the temerity to tell his handsomely paid players that he wanted them in for training first thing on Monday morning, thus scuppering the squad’s plan for their Christmas knees-up in London.

You could hear the collective sigh of relief from Metropolitan Police officers on the wind when they were told to tear up the memo about all leave being cancelled to cope with the carnage that would surely be caused by a group of Premiership footballers out on the razz – but Beattie, it seems, was not impressed.

Let’s just hope that if Pulis tried to lay a head-butt on his player, he showed some mercy and removed his beloved baseball cap first.

After hearing Andy Scott’s reaction to Brentford’s defeat to Tranmere Rovers, you get the feeling he probably wanted to inflict a bit of damage on his players, too.

He was particularly annoyed by the manner in which we conceded the decisive goal – a training-ground free-kick routine to which the players failed to react, even though it was more obvious than a Michael McIntyre gag.

Scotty fumed: “I’m flabbergasted to actually concede a goal like that. We have experienced players on the pitch and it is remarkable that we lost the game due to that goal.”

He had every right to be furious – the cliché, ‘schoolboy defending’, could not be more apt.

In fact, when watching the goal back on the BBC website, I’m sure I can spot Kevin O’Connor turning to give Pim Balkestein a wedgie, thus allowing the Tranmere player to sneak in and score.

Clearly, the result was a poor one and, although we conceded a shocker, the fact that we failed to get a meaningful shot on target in the 90 minutes suggests our present problems run deeper than momentary lapses in concentration.

Still, at least we have got a nice and easy game at Griffin Park tomorrow to help get us back to winning ways...