Nottingham Forest were infuriated by referee Paul Tierney on Friday night, but pundits have suggested the Reds were fortunate with one particular decision against Newcastle United.
The Forest hierarchy are understood to have been fuming over a foul not being given for a challenge on Andre Ayew prior to Alexander Isak’s equaliser at the City Ground. Emmanuel Dennis had opened the scoring for the hosts, but they were pegged back in added time in the first half.
Isak went on to net the winner from the penalty spot right at the death, following a handball by Moussa Niakhate. However, the Reds had already received a let-off before that, when Elliot Anderson had a header ruled out.
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Tierney went to his pitchside monitor and made the call after an intervention by VAR. He decided the ball was inadvertently deflected toward an offside Sean Longstaff in the build-up. However, Match of the Day pundits argued it was a deliberate clearance, rather than a deflection, from Felipe, describing the situation as “perplexing”.
“We’ve gone over it and tried to understand why it wasn’t given,” said Ashley Williams. “The understanding from the referee was it was a deflection from Felipe, when it clearly wasn’t. It was a clearance. I think we can all agree that wasn’t a deflection.”
Dion Dublin added: “That’s not a deflection, that’s just good defending. He was stopping the ball getting into a dangerous area. Giving it as a deflection, I don’t understand.”
Former referee Keith Hackett also criticised the referee over the decision. He tweeted: “Incompetence, it is as simple as that. Lack of concentration. Clear that VAR referees across the group do not fully understand what a clear and obvious error is. I also begin to doubt their law knowledge.”
Forest head coach Steve Cooper had said of Isak’s leveller: “I won’t dwell on the fact too much, because as I said we made our own decisions, but it was definitely a foul on Andre in the build-up. The referee has made a poor decision and so have we. And then the handball is something we can’t argue with, and we’re punished with the penalty going in.”
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