Governing discipline may be a thankless task but it has to be easier than this

THE FA has charged Charlie Austin with making an abusive gesture as he left the field when substituted during Southampton’s loss to Manchester City.

In short, they are going to punish him – possibly even with a two-game ban – for flicking a V-sign (below) at taunting, visiting supporters.

It will be justice for those poor, poor fans who must have been appalled and deeply hurt that Austin responded to their goading by raising a couple of digits.

Imagine their suffering, their pain.

He deserves all that is coming to him. Throw away the key.

Just like Unai Emery deserved the eight grand fine for the heinous crime of kicking a water bottle.

In the meantime, folks, let’s move on from Jonjo Shelvey’s assault on Paul Pogba. Nothing to see here.

Well, actually, there was something to see, but Andre Marriner saw it, made a mess of his decision and Shelvey has got away with one of the worst crimes of the season.

He will play on, while Austin will probably be banned.

Sympathy for Pogba might not be too easy to gather.

He took a spot of retribution, very much had the last laugh and posted a picture on social media of him showing his upper thigh to Shelvey with the accompanying words… “caption this”.

Presumably, this was not the sort of mistake that led to the other “caption this” post, which accompanied Jose Mourinho’s sacking.

Pogba was not at his best against Newcastle, but his performances under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer have been good.

That is a credit to both him and Solskjaer, but it also says a touch about his contribution to the cause in Mourinho’s latter days.

But, whatever your take on Pogba, the indisputable fact is that he was the victim of a horrible challenge at St James’ Park that, apart from the award of a free-kick, went unpunished.

The mantra from the FA has been drummed into us for years and years.

They do not want to re-referee football matches. We get it.

Yet that stance has softened slightly in the case of simulation.

Remember when Anthony Taylor watched Scott Dann and Oumar Niasse come together during Everton’s 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace last season?

He gave a penalty, the FA re-refereed the incident and Niasse was banned for two games.

It was decided the referee had been deceived.

Marriner was not deceived by Shelvey – he just got it spectacularly wrong.

The FA would probably talk about dangerous precedents and question where it would stop.

If they retrospectively punished Shelvey, would they, for example, have to upgrade Abdoulaye Doucoure’s yellow card for his ugly challenge on Ryan Fraser?

Not necessarily.

If there is inconsistency and some assailants escape punishment, so be it.

Surely it would be better to right some injustices rather than none at all.

And it was an injustice that Shelvey escaped a red card on Wednesday and will be free to repeat the offence any time soon.

Next time, it could cause serious injury.

Meanwhile, kick a bottle, give taunting fans just a little bit back, even put a tweet out of line, as Robert Huth once famously did, and you are up before the beak.

Governing discipline in football is a thankless task but it has to be easier than this.

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MANCHESTER UNITED are off for some warm weather training after their FA Cup tie against Reading.Like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s style. Start with a few wins so treat yourself to a winter break in Dubai.Not entirely sure the players deserve a holiday though.

RED MISSED Jonjo Shelvey got away with this ‘assault’ on Paul Pogba