In my opinion the referee got it wrong. I am referring, of course, to the incident in our match with Chelsea at the weekend.

We lost 3-0 at Maine Road but not before I was involved in controversy just three minutes into the match.

Through on goal with only Carlo Cudicini, the Chelsea goalkeeper, to be beat I was pulled back by French defender Marcel Desailly.

I was sure it was a foul and if the referee, Dermot Gallagher, had thought so as well it would have had to have been a red card. I was beyond the last defender and it would have been deemed a professional foul.

But Mr. Gallagher did not see it that way and despite our protests play was allowed to continue.

I was about a yard outside the penalty area when it happened and Marcel was not going to get by or draw level with me and therefore be in a position to tackle me.

He has clearly pulled my shirt but the referee, for one reason or another, has decided it was not a foul and that was the end of the matter.

But I still believe the referee made a mistake and I think if it had happened after, say, 60 minutes in or even later in the first-half his decision might have been in our favour. That it happened so soon after the start might have had a lot to do with it.

Those are the kinds of things that change games though. If Chelsea go down to ten men it is a totally different match.

They are more on the defence, we are more on the attack but it wasn't to be.

For the first 20 minutes I thought we played very well without scoring. But they weathered the storm and were able to get more into the game.

Our recent form has not been good and consequently as the game wore on and we were less and less able to break them down confidence started to drift away.

They realised this and started to come into their own.

When Gianfranco Zola scored Chelsea's first goal after 69 minutes I still felt we might be capable of getting something from the match.

But the second goal from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink six minutes from time was the killer. He grabbed his second and their third two minutes later, but the game was really won and lost when he made it 2-0.

It was a disappointing way to end my first start in the Premiership this season. Prior to this match I had either been unavailable through injury or had been named as a substitute.

But I had a feeling, partly due to the way City had been playing, that I would get my chance at the weekend.

When the manager, Kevin Keegan, named the team on Saturday it did not come as a surprise to me that I was going to start alongside Nicolas Anelka. I don't think it would have surprised my team-mates either because the way results had gone there was perhaps a need to try something else, to try something different.

I was relatively pleased with my performance. As a striker you are judged on your goals and in times like these, when the team is not performing as people would like, your passing, tackling and link-up play can go unnoticed. But I think the majority of people recognised that I was doing a good job for the team.

That said apart from the possible one-on-one I didn't really have any clear cut chances. I had a header which went just over the bar but it was one of those where it was going over my head and I was really just trying to get something on it to send it goalward. You couldn't say it was a bad miss, rather that I had done well just to get my head on it.

We now have a few days before our next game on Saturday against Birmingham City at St.Andrews.

The manager has used some of that time to hold team meetings where we have all been allowed to discuss things we believe relevant to our current situation.

One of the subjects that came up was the problems we have had with the language barrier.

We are a multi-cultural team and sometimes that can cause problems on the field. We have a Chinaman, two Danes, an Algerian and a Frenchman to name but a few and getting instructions across can be difficult.

These are problems you would not have if English speakers dominated the team. You would not waste time on communication because it's automatically understood. If I say ‘turn' or ‘man on' they would know straightaway, they would not have to then translate that into their own language.

Sun Jihai, for example, came to Maine Road speaking no English whatsoever. The manager would say something and he would say he had understood and then he would turn to one of his team mates and ask what it was he had just heard!

That has been a major factor in our current form and we have done a lot to try and resolve it. It is not something that can be rectified overnight but it shows that the gaffer is willing to address the points that the players feel have some bearing.

It is about us all going in one direction.

One final thing before I sign off. While we were given a break during the recent internationals my wife and I took a trip to Euro Disney in Paris, France.

While there I was tapped on the shoulder and when I turned around I was greeted by well-known chef and TV personality Ainsley Harriott.

He said: “Hi, how are you doing Shaun?”

I recognised him immediately because I had seen him on the television but I was surprised he knew who I was.

My mother-in-law always looks out for his show and so we had our picture taken together.

I got to thinking afterwards that when I first came out to England I wanted to be well known. Not to the extent that you cannot go anywhere or do anything but just so that people recognise who you are. After that incident I think I've achieved that aim.