What did I learn last night? That Twitter doesn't do irony - and that you can get your fingers burned if you're not careful.

Middlesbrough, who knocked out Manchester City in the FA Cup, were drawn against Arsenal in the fifth round and celebrity Gunners' fan Piers Morgan tweeted about how sorry he was to see Middlesbrough coming to the end of their cup run.

Unfortunately, the former Daily Mirror editor made an error which is common among those who seldom venture north of Watford, spelling it as "Middlesborough".

As a Boro lad born and bred myself, I was moved to take the mickey out of Piers, who boasts a paltry 4,348,358 followers.

"Brilliant! Pierce Morgan can't spell Middlesbrough. What an Arse-nal," I declared.

Yes, I know it was childish, but I couldn't help myself. And the misspelling of "Piers" was honestly meant to be ironic. If he can't spell our town right, I'll spell his name wrong - that was my brilliant strategy.

I thought it was obvious and that everyone would get it but, within seconds, I was flooded with abuse. Some bloke called Sean McGrath tweeted: "And you don't know how to spell Piers - grow up."

Even the mighty Mr Morgan waded in with a slap-down tweet to me, simply saying: "Oh dear, Peter."

With hindsight, perhaps I should have added a second spelling mistake to his name to emphasise the irony but even that might have sailed over some Twitter heads.

I had no other option but to tweet in my defence: "To those correcting me for misspelling 'Pierce Morgan' - who misspelled Middlesbrough - I give up. @piersmorgan @piersmorgen @PierceBrosnan."

I was grateful to The Northern Echo's chief football writer Paul Fraser, among quite a few others, who voiced his support. "Frightening how stupid some people can be. Twitter doesn't do irony."

How right he was.

Meanwhile, Rob McMahon, in Liverpool, was taking it all a bit too far by tweeting that I shouldn't worry because Piers Morgan was a "miserable ****".

I begged to differ. "He's not miserable," I replied. Yes, yes, I know. It brings out the child in me. But he started it first!

The last word went to Great North Run veteran "Geordie Strider" George Nicholson, of Shadforth, near Durham, who tweeted: "Peter, I'd love to see how Piers Morgan would cope with Ireshopeburn."

I think he'd struggle, George. He really would. Mind you, there's not much chance of the villagers being able to muster a team to play Arsenal.

Thankfully, despite it all, I haven't lost any of my 10,309 followers. That's a mere 4,338,049 fewer than Pierce Morgen.

Who does he think he is?