Television replays of the incident back Bellamy’s claims, with Toldo clearly making contact with striker after the ball had gone but Bellamy making no kind of appeal for a penalty.
"It was disappointing to get booked, because I was trying to explain to the referee that I hadn’t dived," he told nufc.co.uk.
"To be honest I was hoping the goalkeeper was going to clip me, but he didn’t and my momentum took me over. I’m not going to stand here and lie and say it was a penalty when it wasn’t.
"I tried to be honest with the referee but honesty didn’t work too much with him and that’s another booking next to my name."
The referee can be excused for this error, and certainly Bellamy’s reputation didn’t help him, but the complete inconsistency of his performance was underlined by the fact that he failed to book either Christian Vieri for a blatant dive minutes later or Sergio Conceicao for his consistent cheating.