It was a seminal moment in British sport. Maybe it was a seminal moment for British society. On Sunday morning Oli Furness, was awarded a penalty in Weltons game with Burtons after being apparently tripped by a Burtons centre back. Then something happened, something so bizarre it has no precedent in the modern game.
Furness was honest unlike Tom Bowey. He turned to the ref (and to the TV cameras) and mouthed "No, no", waving dismissively that it was not really a penalty. He had simply tripped. The defender had not touched him.
I was reminded of Tom Stoppard's comedy Professional Foul, which mixes football and philosophy. A philosopher asks a professional footballer why players from opposing teams always appeal for a throw-in when "every bloody time" the player who actually kicked it out of play knows that he did. What are the moral and philosophical boundaries between loutishness, dishonesty and simply wanting to gain an advantage for your team?
With penalties, soccer etiquette - or lack of it - has been even clearer in the last couple of weeks at Social Park thanks to Tom Boweys theatrics that were so bad it put Richard Drabble of his tea. You always contest a penalty award against you. You never dispute a penalty award in your favour. Cricketers may walk but footballers never, never talk. Yet Furness did, or tried to. And then the action became surreal enough to give philosophers an entire seminar. So unprecedented was Furness's honesty that no one knew how to handle it.
The ref who had blown his whistle and pointed to the spot was expecting the usual clamour of protests from the Burtons players. But a protest from the player who had won the penalty? He hadn't been taught about that at referee school. The next day he said simply that he hadn't heard Furness say anything. "He obviously didn't hear him waving then," noted one fan in the John Stanham stand sarcastically.
On the field the drama was coming to its climax with the taking of the penalty but the fates are not so easily satisfied. The ball was presented to Scott Coupland one of life's logical positivists, who fired it unsheepishly into the goal to conclude the drama.
But salute Oli Furness for bringing a moments honesty back into Weltons football, even though he admitted later to being embarassed that he had blatantly dived in the first place.