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Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo said he was "disappointed" with the officials' failure to award his side a penalty on three separate occasions against Everton
Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo said he was “disappointed” with the officials’ failure to award his side a penalty on three separate occasions against Everton

Nottingham Forest say they are “considering their options” over “extremely poor” refereeing decisions following their 2-0 defeat at Everton.

The club said they had “warned” the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL) that “the VAR is a Luton fan but they didn’t change him”.

“Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept,” the club said on X.external-link

“Our patience has been tested multiple times.”

Although they did not name the official, the video assistant referee was Stuart Attwell.

Nottingham Forest issued the highly critical post on the social network at 15:42 BST, about five minutes after full-time in the match at Goodison Park – which left the club one point above the relegation zone.

BBC Sport is contacting the PGMOL for comment, and understands the Football Association is aware of the post and investigating.

‘I don’t understand the decision’ – what happened to anger Forest?

All three penalty claims centred on incidents involving Everton’s veteran ex-England defender Young.

They felt he caught the back of Gio Reyna’s boot in attempting to make a tackle when the game was goalless.

Then, late in the first half, after Everton had taken the lead, a Callum Hudson-Odoi cross struck Young on the arm.

Ashley Young tries to block Callum Hudson-Odoi's cross in the Premier League match between Everton and Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest’s handball claim against Ashley Young happened just before half-time, with Everton leading 1-0

The third incident happened after the interval, with the Toffees still 1-0 ahead, as Young tangled with Hudson-Odoi in the area but the officials ruled he had won the ball cleanly.

“I don’t understand the reason and the decision of [referee] Anthony Taylor and VAR Stuart Attwell, because I see the images,” boss Nuno Espirito Santo told Sky Sports.

“What I can tell you is this is a general feeling that has been with us – we are trying to ignore it but so many times it is repeating, bad decisions against us, even taking things from us.

“It is hard to take. There is a penalty on Gio Reyna, it’s a kick, don’t tell me that is not contact. It’s a penalty, then a handball, then the situation of the incident with Callum.

“So it’s understandable that we react like this as a club because we want to get things right. We don’t want bad referees, we want good decisions.

“OK if we lost the game today and there were no incidents, we take it, we didn’t play good enough to win the match but we did things right in the right moments and we are disappointed with the decisions.”



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