by Nuno Espirito Santo has questioned whether there is a conspiracy to get Nottingham Forest relegated this season after the head coach said he felt he had been wronged by another controversial refereeing decision.
A week on from referee Paul Tierney’s mistake at the City Ground which could have cost Forest a point, on Sunday it was referee Michael Salisbury who chose to only show Brighton’s Jakub Moder a yellow card for a clear offence. on a red card after 67 minutes. of firm contact.
The challenge started in mid-air and ended with the Polish midfield stud in Neco Williams’ ankle. But Craig Pawson’s VAR chose not to invite Salisbury to watch the incident again on the pitch-side monitor.
“What’s going on? Someone wants to take us down?” Forest manager Nuno told the BBC afterwards.
In his press conference shortly after, he released it completely. “It’s a clear red card, a bad mistake,” he said. “Having an extra player makes a big difference. We were on top of the game and VAR is a bad decision. I don’t judge the referee alone.”
“It’s week by week. They apologize to us and it means nothing. Everyone is aware of the mistakes. And I’m trying to be honest and keep myself calm and respectful, but enough is enough.
“Please, somebody tell me what’s going on. Why is he always with us? You should see Neco Williams’ leg. We don’t bull —-. It’s a red card. It is so clear. and you know what is going to happen. In two days they are going to apologise.”
Nuno’s anger was echoed by his players. “It’s getting ridiculous. Honestly ridiculous,” said Forest attacking midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White. “The amount of decisions that have been put against us this season is alarming. I don’t want to talk so much because I could get into trouble, so many things I want to say. In two days we will get an apology again.”
With Forest pushing for an equaliser, the destination of the points hung in the balance and Nuno clearly felt that an off-man advantage would have swung the result in Forest’s favour.
However, Moder did not support Salisbury’s decision on the pitch. said: “I think the referee knows better than me if it’s yellow or red. He decided it was a yellow and I believe him,” said the Brighton midfielder.
Forest are understood to have already submitted four letters of complaint to PGMOL this season. In August, Forest upheld two VAR decisions by Rob Jones in the 3-2 win against Manchester United, before Danilo’s departure in December – again at the hands of Jones who was in charge in the 3-2 loss to Bournemouth .
In January, Forest also complained about Brentford striker Ivan Toney taking a free-kick from the wrong position in their 1-0 win, before furious protests last weekend after Liverpool won 1-0 at the City Ground in 99th minute later. Tierney ball drop mistake.
Nuno insisted his team’s spirit is intact but they rarely looked like scoring against a less open and naive Brighton side than in some recent games. The win leaves Forest with just one win in eight Premier League games, and no win on the road since Boxing Day.
Brighton’s win was anything but nice, and got a match-winning goal, a messy own goal by Andrew Omobamidele, but Roberto De Zerbi’s side won’t care. They snapped their own recent run of three wins in a row and extended their club run of unbeaten home games in the top flight to 12 games.
The hard-fought three points were the perfect antidote to AS Roma’s 4-0 defeat on Thursday, but while that result probably means their European adventure is over, they showed signs that they could still challenge to return to the next European competition. season.
It was just their third win in the Premier League since the turn of the year and they are still struggling with an injury list that is unlikely to ease in the short term but are back in eighth place after dropping to tenth Saturday.
“I am very happy at first with the reaction but I had no doubts about the human qualities of my players,” said De Zerbi. “After the goal we suffered but we didn’t concede too many shots. Now we have to prepare the game for Thursday.”
That is the second step against Roma which could be redeeming or another blow to morale. But the situation didn’t seem to be on their side coming out of their midweek slump and they went ahead after 29 minutes. Pascal Gross sent in a free kick from the left aimed at Moder’s head but Omobamidele got there first and the ball bounced smoothly off his shoulder and into the net.
Forest surrounded Salisbury and for a while nobody was sure if they had conceded a goal or not. But there was much more controversy to come.
