IRRITATED beyond measure. Maybe it’s the heat, certainly it’s something to do with the Wire’s winning streak coming to an end (at Widnes of all places).

Another shocker from homegrown referee Phil Bentham (basketball anyone?) might have many praying for the reinstatement of the old form, which prevented local officials from being allocated fixtures within their domains.

But aside from Mr B’s arbitary use of the video equipment (and steadfast refusal to make rulings on matters just inches from his nose), we would still have succumbed, as painful as that is to type.

Perhaps it was the incessant chatter from the cast of Loose Women’s mums, assembled behind our Away Day Crew, which added to my prevailing irrational mood.

The adoption of our own new ‘alley-alley-ooh’ chant - a blatant football steal to begin with - was a fairly fresh niggle, being even more annoying than Wigan’s equally nerve-shredding equivalent. Makes the Monaghan chant sound like early Beethoven.

Of course it goes without saying that the rising thermometer has heralded the increased exposure of acres of flesh, and the latest additions to Warrington’s pantheon of crap tattoos become apparent, for skinny runts and ‘roid monkeys alike, a recurring thorn in the side.

And so it was with this spirit of calm that I scanned through my copy of Private Eye and came across an interesting item, concerning the horrific murder of Garry Newlove and one of the protagonists, Jordan Cunliffe.

The question of Cunliffe’s conviction has been brought into focus again as Jimmy McGovern has used the Newlove case, and others, to form the backbone of his new drama, Common, centred around the issue of joint enterprise crimes.

Cunliffe’s campaigners, including mother Janet, are contending that the then-19-year-old’s failing eyesight, caused by a condition known as keratoconus, meant he would have had only a hazy idea what was going on that night in Station Road.

McGovern has described Cunliffe as a ‘wholly innocent boy’, which could be stretching thing a little when you consider the teenager was close enough to the violence to end up with the blood of Garry Newlove’s daughter Zoe on his clothing. And an appeal in 2010, on not dissimilar grounds, was unsuccessful.

I’m not entirely convinced by the their reasoning but you should never discount anything without a fair hearing.

If Guardian readers watch the drama Common, still available on the BBC’s I-Player, or read the ‘Justice4JordanCunliffe’ website, they may come to their own view.

And if anyone feels that raising this thought-provoking matter is out of line, then I’ll look forward to the predictable tirade of abuse via the usual channels.