It is easy to be critical of Nottingham Forest. And the manner in which they used social media to voice allegations over the integrity of match officials after Sunday’s 2-0 away loss against fellow relegation candidates Everton was definitely… unusual.
Yet while they will be mocked for the way they shared their outrage, Forest clearly feel that their frustration and anger are justified.
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People will say it is unseemly behaviour for a Premier League club with such a long and proud history to vent on social media like that. And, if we are honest, on some level it is.
Football pundit Jamie Carragher said it was akin to the actions of a “fan in a pub”. His Sky Sports colleague Gary Neville said: “It’s a horrendous statement by that football club. It lets the proud history of that club down, and the inferred cheating, as suggested by the fact there’s a Luton Town (supporting) official (working the Everton-Forest game), is absolutely ridiculous.”
Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept.
We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times.
NFFC will now consider its options.
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 21, 2024
It is therefore no surprise that the Football Association is investigating the post in question to decide whether any official lines have been crossed. PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited), the body representing the nation’s top referees, assistants and VARs, is supportive of that stance.
Yet while X, formerly Twitter, might not be the most appropriate of places for a Premier League club to let off steam about match officials, the post was a reflection of the mood among the Forest hierarchy, the coaching staff and the players (and the club had initially planned to put it out at half-time, when it was only 1-0).
In the away dressing room yesterday, there was a sense of outrage after the final whistle and Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santo, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live after the game, encapsulated the level of the club’s anger when he said: “If we were in another country, for sure that (the subject of conspiracy) will come up.”
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This is not the first injustice Forest have felt and among those running the club the anger is palpable — so much so the instruction to send the tweet came right from the top.
However, the answer to the question of why those decisions did not go in their favour does not realistically lie with the fact that the VAR official for the game, Stuart Attwell — or the fourth official Keith Stroud for that matter — supports Luton Town, another club in the relegation discussion (as Forest implied with their post-match tweet).
That, as even Nuno pointed out himself after the game, is “not important”. Even just presuming for one minute that there was bias there — and there is no evidence to support that notion — the best result at Goodison for Luton would surely have been a draw, rather than either team going home with all three points.
It is true PGMOL could have saved itself a problem by not appointing an official with an affiliation to one of the two clubs’ relegation rivals to this game. But if we are at the stage where a match official supporting a team in close proximity to the competing sides in the table must now be taken into account when deciding if they are assigned to a fixture, we will be stepping into a danger zone.
The rulebook states: “A referee shall at all times act impartially. When a referee believes that there is a material interest conflicting with the duties and obligations of a match official and any appointment, then the referee shall decline to act or officiate and declare it to the appointing authority (whose decision in relation to any dispute or difference in such matters shall be final and binding).”
The bigger, most significant question is how a combination of referee Anthony Taylor and Attwell managed to look at three separate incidents and decide that a penalty should not have been awarded in any of them.
Nuno is not the first Forest head coach to be critical of Attwell.
Predecessor Steve Cooper was not a fan of the Nuneaton official, who apologised to the then Forest boss after he ruled they should not have had a penalty in a 1-0 away defeat against Bournemouth late in the 2021-22 season, when the two clubs were competing for automatic promotion from the Championship, because of an incorrect offside decision.
Attwell popped up again at the start of this season, when he sent off defender Joe Worrall and awarded a soft winning penalty to Manchester United when Forest went to Old Trafford and took a two-goal lead before losing, 3-2. He will not be on the City Ground hierarchy’s Christmas card list.
Mark Clattenburg, the former Premier League official who was appointed in an advisory role by the club in February, had a conversation with PGMOL chief Howard Webb on Friday during which the subject of Attwell’s appointment was raised. However, The Athletic has been told by PGMOL that there was no direct request for him to be taken off the game and Clattenburg did not express concerns with the official’s involvement in the match.
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Clattenburg was said to have mentioned to Webb that the only possible issue was that it might be brought up at Nuno’s Friday media conference.
In his column for MailOnline, published on Sunday night, Clattenburg heavily criticised the officiating in the game but did not say that it was him personally who spoke to PGMOL before the match about the fact Attwell would be on VAR.
The Athletic has contacted the Premier League and PGMOL for comment.
Forest are not the victims of some great conspiracy; talk of anyone wanting to edge them off the top table and back into the EFL is fanciful. But that is not to say such decisions might not have that end result next month, regardless.
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So, it could end up being a very costly weekend for Forest, who are a point ahead of third-bottom Luton with four games each left to play in the battle to avoid being one of the three relegated sides.
And while Forest were not at their best at Goodison, would the outcome have been different had they been awarded even just one of the three penalty kicks? Not definitely, but perhaps.
Let’s take a closer look at each of those incidents, which have caused such a fallout in the relegation battle.
The first came when the game was goalless, Ashley Young catching the heel of Forest’s Gio Reyna when the USMNT player shaped up to shoot.
Reyna was hurt in the incident and lay rolling about on the turf for several seconds as Taylor waved for play to continue. “The situation with Gio in the first half… it is a clear one, it was a clear foul,” said Nuno.
The second moment came late in the first half after Everton had taken the lead.
Callum Hudson-Odoi hit a cross-shot from the left side of the penalty area, and the ball struck Young’s arm, which was away from his body. A possible explanation for a penalty not being given was the short distance between him and Hudson-Odoi.
Should Nottingham Forest have had a penalty for this? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/U13SmkNgHf
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 21, 2024
“If he does not block it, the ball goes to (Chris) Wood (who was in a good position to score),” said Nuno.
The third penalty shout again involved Young, who wore a look of guilt after he brought down Hudson-Odoi from behind, inside the box on the left side. Young made no contact with the ball and the Forest winger had been in a fine position to have a shot at goal.
“The referee and particularly the VAR, they have the time to sit and assess the images. I would just like to understand why, why, why, why, are we always on the end of bad decisions?” added Nuno. He also said he felt there was “no point“ in trying to speak to referee Taylor after the match.
“The players feel that they work hard and that they are not getting what they deserve, particularly from the referees. The result of the game — we should blame ourselves, because we had clear chances. We should have done better. I look at the game, I look at the referee… we are to blame also, for not taking our chances.
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“Of course it affects the players, and it has been affecting us for a while now. We have four games to go and we should try to ignore this. But it is there. Over and over again. It is hard for the players to ignore.”
When it comes to the fight against relegation, Forest have a responsibility to do their own jobs in the remaining four games: against title-contenders Manchester City, last-placed Sheffield United, mid-table Chelsea and, in the season finale on May 19, second-bottom Burnley.
But at the moment, Forest feel the match officials are not doing their jobs well enough and, as we saw yesterday, they are struggling to keep their emotions in check.
GO DEEPER
Analysing Nottingham Forest's path to Premier League survival - game by game
(Top photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)