Attending an Ed Sheeran gig would be punishment enough for most people deemed guilty of a wrongdoing, but for Mark Clattenburg being dropped for this weekend’s Premier League fixtures perhaps makes it that bit worse.

Clattenburg wasn’t dropped for failing to spot a blatant trip on Wilfried Zaha in the West Bromwich Albion penalty area on Saturday, or for failing to act when Craig Dawson made the rash decision to plant his elbow in the face of Julian Speroni.

No, instead he was dropped because he travelled alone to the match in order to attend an Ed Sheeran gig.

For a member of the Premier League A-Team his performance was shocking.

Throughout the week West Brom supporters and officials alike have leapt to the defence of their centre-back with numerous caveats for the defender’s behaviour, such as “Speroni was falling back 45 degrees and Dawson’s elbow went into him”. 

Fair enough, if it was true… but even an apology has been missing from a man former Palace player Alan Irvine stated is “a totally honest player”.

Clearly not so honest as to accept he injured a fellow professional – whether deliberate or unintentional.

Some may point to the way Palace fans defended Claude Davis following his forearm smash more akin to a WWE bout than a football match, on Roger Johnson, then at Cardiff.

Sure, some Palace fans defended the player, just as some West Brom supporters are defending their player.

But that is not to say both sets of supporters all believe the same thing. Arguably Davis’ actions were less deliberate than Dawson’s, but that is not the point.

What is concerning is that football once again appears to release tribalism from its cage.

It is a roaring beast that enters the fray when controversy arises, it shows the dangers of how the baby is thrown out with the bath water and rationality flies off into space.

Elbow: Intentional or otherwise, Craig Dawson has offered no apology to Crystal Palace keeper Julian Speroni

A simple apology – without necessarily having to accept any intention – would have calmed the situation down.

But Alan Irvine’s comments in an official statement on the Baggies’ website seems to have stoked the fire significantly.

Given the commendable applause for Jeff Astle in matches, you’d have thought West Brom fans would appreciate that there is more to life than football, and sometimes you have to take a step back from the us versus them nature of the sport to realise that there are 22 individual human beings on the pitch.

A little harder and a little more central, and Speroni could have been seriously injured.

Quite how the officials decided no punishment was required is baffling, and why Irvine set about inciting more controversy is also an oddity.

I was not around to witness football in the 60s and 70s but understand it was far more dangerous than today, and while some have seen this as a sanitisation and poisoning of football’s purity, most will accept that protection of players should be paramount, after all, it’s only entertainment.

Talking of entertainment, Palace provided cheap laughs on Saturday.

I lost a lot of money gambling earlier this season so am no longer of that persuasion but if I were, then I’d have put good money on Palace to clutch something other than victory from the jaws of victory.

Your Local Guardian:

Helping hand: Mark Clattenburg

That is of course, exactly what they did – albeit with a little help from Clattenburg – but it was immensely frustrating, so much so that you cannot help but laugh or else you would cry, to see a two goal lead squandered away from home in the Premier League.

Anyone taking over a team so well drilled by Tony Pulis would find it tough to match that, but it seems Palace are far less organised. Perhaps injuries have truly taken their toll.

Takeover you say? Josh Harris’ potential takeover worries me a little, but excites me nonetheless.

In my lifetime Palace have always been bought out of administration so this is unchartered territory, and it’s exciting; but one just hopes it does not suck the life out of the club.

Parish pours cold water on takeover talks... for now

Palace must stay true to the community; focus on what makes Palace, Palace.

Take away the core aspects which founded the club and you have lost the club; it would be like moving 100 miles away but playing under the same name, despite being a club totally unrecognisable from its roots.

Let us not become a franchise, MK Dons we are not.