Ivan Toney is back but nothing has changed: gambling is embedded in football | Jonathan Wilson

Brentford striker’s ban was met with sympathy, reflecting an unease about the prevalence of betting within the game

Nottingham Forest, you suspect, will have been following the performances of Brentford’s reserve side with a degree of trepidation. There was a 2-2 draw in a friendly against Como and then, last Saturday, a 5-1 win over Southampton Under-23s.

Ivan Toney scored in the first and got a hat-trick in the second. B-team football is not the Premier League but the suggestion is that the England striker is in form and ready for his comeback from an eight-month suspension for breaching gambling regulations.

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