Dermot Gallagher shares whether Anthony Elanga's goal should have been disallowed in Forest win
Yesterday at 01:00 PM
Nottingham Forest are on the crest of a wave right now with Aston Villa despatched on Saturday in epic stoppage time circumstances.
Anthony Elanga praised Emi Martinez for a remarkable save from Nicolas Dominguez but he was breached in the 93rd minute when the Forest winger swept home.
There was some controversy during the game, however, with Unai Emery bemoaning VAR after he felt Forest got away with a couple of decisions.
That does seem rich considering that Forest had to wait four minutes whilst the VAR checked a Chris Wood equaliser only for it to be ruled out.
There was also a flashpoint for the winning goal, with Matty Cash being dispossessed by Elliot Anderson to then square for Elanga to finish.
Dermot Gallagher shares whether Forest winner should have stood vs Aston Villa
The former Premier League referee has been chewing the fat again this morning over whether or not the winning goal should have been ruled out.
Elanga was clearly very relieved to score for the first time since February on Saturday evening and he will now hope for a positive run of form.
Gallagher thinks there is one reason why the winner wasn’t given an extensive check by VAR and believes the goal was right to stand.
He told Sky Sports: “I think it depends on who you talk to. Some think it’s a foul, some do not – what I would say is you can’t re-referee football matches.
“The referee has a good position and says it’s no foul and play on and certainly not one for VAR – if you are interfering with that, then you are going to be looking at every single incident on the field.
“I don’t think it’s a foul, I think he steps across and wins the ball. I certainly don’t think it’s a clear and obvious error.”
Forest deserved a bit of luck with VAR
The Reds needed to get another home win secured and it was nice to see it done in some style after a lacklustre home win over Ipswich last time out at the City Ground.
Forest have had some rotten luck over the last two years when it comes to VAR and it’s about time the luck started to change a little bit.
That said, had the game finished 1-0, Forest would have felt aggrieved at a super tight offside call, with the lines arguably drawn in the wrong place once again.
Thankfully, the game wasn’t re-refereed when Anderson nicked the ball off of Cash and Forest can now move forward with another big three points in the bag.
