Dermot Gallagher shares his view on if Ivan Toney should have had a penalty v Liverpool

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Liverpool might have hammered Brentford at the weekend but the game could well have changed had Ivan Toney been awarded a penalty.

Toney was bundled to the ground by Liverpool defender Andy Robertson but the referee and then VAR both decided that there was no penalty to be given. At the time, it looked a bizarre call and Robertson will have felt relieved as well.

Of course, the decision was always going to become a talking point and the decision has featured on this morning’s episode of the Sky Sports show, Ref Watch.

And speaking about the call on there, former PL referee Dermot Gallagher has said that he can’t believe it wasn’t given as a penalty on Toney.

Dermot Gallagher shares his view on Ivan Toney penalty decision v Liverpool

Speaking on the show, Gallagher conceded the referee had got it wrong on this one and that it was indeed a penalty in his eyes.

“I think it’s a foul. I think, this is a great angle, if you look. Toney holds his ground, he’s got the ball in front of him, Robertson, sometimes as a defender if you can’t make a challenge you’ve got to hold off. If he’s side by side, I can understand it but he’s not. His shoulder goes into his back and I think penalty,” Gallagher said.

In the studio, both Stephen Warnock and Sue Smith both agreed with Gallagher as well, which makes it even stranger that VAR never intervened.

Big club bias?

You see this phrase banded around a lot on social media and there’s probably nothing in it in the main.

However, this one did stink a bit yesterday and you do get the feeling that if this was the other way around, Liverpool might have got the decision, given how Jurgen Klopp goes off at refs.

Toney was simply hammered to the floor by Robertson here and it’s quite simply a penalty.

Liverpool have got away with one massively here as Toney would not have missed and the game could have changed a lot.