The shocking abuse of Ivan Toney for the goal against Arsenal is further evidence that social media needs to crack down on despicable gossip

IVAN TONEY scores! And an hour or so later, despicable gossip writers who populate a whole host of social media are busy sending the Brentford striker some very nasty messages.

That’s par for the course for the 26-year-old, who fought his way through eight clubs before ending up with the Bees, where he scored 57 goals in 98 games.

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In a perfectly respectful society, his record would be recognized nationally, but it is not. And why? Because he’s black – and racism is a disgusting social disease.

But hold on. That may be true in essence, if not entirely in football.

Harry Kane isn’t black and yet the Spurs forward topped a list of abused players in England’s World Cup squad in Qatar. And that was before he missed the penalty against France.

After that, his phone and laptop must have been screaming for mercy.

So these social abusers seem to enjoy three football goals the most – failure on the pitch, revenge, and black players.

Toney was guilty of scoring the goal that led to Brentford’s away draw at Premier League leaders Arsenal, potentially a turning point in the title race.

I can understand why the Gunners fans were furious at the startling VAR error of missing a clear offside that immediately resulted in Toney’s headed goal, but innocent chap Toney was just doing his job.

For a so-called late starter, the Cobbler wasn’t really successful until it was sold to Brentford in Peterborough for £5million – which rose to £10million.

Now he is an England international. A tale of try, try and try again, to be admired and yet abused over and over again.

A North Shields man has previously been charged with sending him hate mail in October.

Now Brentford is determined to hunt down another keyboard weirdo, as it should be.

It’s hard to believe that even during the group stage in Qatar, the England team received no fewer than 1,546 abusive tweets, 205 of which were related to race, gender or sexuality.

The little bit of good news was that the number dropped drastically from Euro 2020, where it was 3,000 just in the hours after the three missed penalties in the final against Italy.

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook say they have unveiled plans to delete the hate mail surrounding football, but their success rate is one star at best. It should be a five star priority.

A new government law, due to be passed by April, aims to protect children, but not really adults.

But every generation should be protected, for some of the filth, curses and threats I am all too aware of have no place in any society.

These offenses are considered criminal aggravations and top footballers, including their families, are major victims.

Racist remarks on game day are also unacceptable, although the two Erics, Dier and Cantona had an easy way of dealing with it.

So annoyed by remarks, they jumped onto the terraces to weed out the culprits. Cantona actually aimed at one of them – not entirely recommended.

Nonetheless, Kick it Out is a great anti-discrimination campaign and clubs should be applauded for sticking to it.