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With respect Mr Bell, Mitchell isn't a "costs' Rules" judgment. It said, in your footballing metaphor, that it is perfectly in order to shoot the defender for having put his foot over the sprayed line on the turf. Indeed, not only is the Ref mincing around with his pearl-handled Colt strapped ostentatiously to his hip, but the linesmen are equally "tooled up" and busily dispatching the players with sudden alacrity for even a mild hint of non-observance of the off-side rule.
To continue your footballing metaphor, indeed, there is no injury time. In fact, for the players, it isn't so much a "nil-sum" game as one where, as with Subalterns in the Great War, life for litigators is decidedly nasty,brutish and short.
Off-side, Mr Bell?