Clubs blaming officials for defeats is childish and dangerous

th 19 minutes of Saturday’s Premier League game at Brentford played, Nottingham Forest led 1-0. The euphoria that had greeted Ivan Toney’s return after an eight-month ban for breaches of FA gambling regulations had begun to dissipate. The thought was that Brentford, disjointed against the team a place above them in the table, were in serious relegation trouble, that Toney might not be enough to save them. Then Mikkel Damsgaard was felled by Orel Mangala just outside the box.

Matt Turner, Forest’s US goalkeeper, set his wall. Toney adjusted the position of the ball a few inches to the right. Then, as the referee Darren England fussed around the wall, Toney moved it a little further, this time taking up a handful of the referee’s disappearing foam and moving it as well. How far did he move it in total? Eighteen inches, perhaps? Maybe two feet maximum. It was enough. Toney strolled up and was able to arc the ball, apparently relatively easily – although free-kicks tend to look easy when they go in – between the edge of the wall and Callum Hudson-Odoi, guarding for runs on its outside edge, bringing it back inside Turner’s left-hand post.

Brentford had their equaliser and went on to win 3-2. After which Forest realised there was only one party to blame: England and his team, for having allowed Toney to move the ball before taking the free-kick. Forest have announced they will be writing to the PGMOL – the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the body that governs the officiating of Premier League games – to protest.

It will not change the result. The goal will still stand. England and his team will not face sanction. Which is exactly as it should be. Once the game is done, it is done. Players often reposition the ball