The four worst referee mistakes to impact Nottingham Forest this season, number one is truly shocking
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Nottingham Forest have a love-hate relationship when it comes to referees.
Some of the decisions that Forest have been on the wrong end of in recent times have been frankly laughable.
Ineptitude springs to mind and already this season Nuno Espirito Santo has been given a three-match touchline ban.
Evangelos Marinakis is currently serving a five-match stadium ban and the club have some issues to take care of when it comes to the conduct on a matchday.
Referees are still human after all and it’s important to make complaints the right way and not in a manner that will cause severe punishments.
Last season was farcical when it came to refereeing decision with a 2-0 defeat to Everton leading to Forest getting a £750,000 fine based on a social media post afterwards.
This season there have been some improvements but nonetheless, we’ve taken a look at four decisions that have still been pretty diabolical during 2024/25.
The four worst refereeing mistakes involving Nottingham Forest this season
4. Brighton 2-2 Nottingham Forest – Simon Adringa on Alex Moreno
Referee: Rob Jones
VAR: Peter Bankes
This one was pretty ridiculous, it has to be said.
As Alex Moreno turned away from Simon Adringa, the Brighton player planted six studs into the back of the Forest man’s leg with malice seemingly intended.
It was one of those decisions that had the shoe been on the other foot, it looks likely that it would have been checked.
This wasn’t the only drama during this game and for referee, Jones, there was worse to come during the 90 minutes.
That said, with this one, he really wasn’t helped out at all by his VAR back in Stockley Park.
3. Brighton 2-2 Nottingham Forest – Morgan Gibbs-White’s second yellow card
Referee: Rob Jones
VAR: Peter Bankes
In fairness, the actual decision wasn’t the worst thing about this actual incident.
Gibbs-White went flying into a tackle whilst on a yellow card and in this day and age, you’re asking for trouble.
However, the process was worse than something you’d find on a park on a Sunday morning.
Jones clearly signalled that he thought that Gibbs-White won the ball and what made everyone boil over was that he changed his mind based on influences from elsewhere.
To compound Forest’s misery an independent commission voted 5-0 that Gibbs-White shouldn’t have been shown a second yellow card for the incident.
2. Chelsea 1-1 Nottingham Forest – Nicolas Jackson slaps Morato
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
VAR: Jarrad Gillett
This is probably one of the worst decisions that we’ve seen this season but it’s not number one as there was no way that Kavanagh could have seen it.
As Jackson had already been substituted, it wasn’t an incident that could have been dealt with on the day – with none of the officials picking it up and VAR not authorised to check that.
However, the worst bit about it was the FA deciding to take no further action against Jackson and actually charging Forest a more severe fine for their part in the incident.
Again, make it make sense!
1. Nottingham Forest 0-1 Fulham – Anthony Elanga fouled in the area by Calvin Bassey
Referee: Josh Smith
VAR: John Brooks
This was by far the worst incident that Forest have been part of this season in our minds – and it leaves us scratching our heads to this very day.
After Murillo was guilty of fouling Andreas Pereira in the penalty area – accidentally – Fulham scored from the penalty spot.
That would have been fine but when Bassey clearly kicked the back leg of Anthony Elanga, it looked certain that John Brooks would return the favour and ask Smith to check one for Forest.
Instead, he deemed it outside of the threshold for a foul and Forest were left to rue another clear foul that didn’t result in a penalty being awarded.
Smith is a Championship match official and on this showing, it might be a while before he makes a permanent step up to the Premier League.
