Referees have to help themselves – Forest’s Steve Cooper frustrated by decisions
Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper felt it was another bad day for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited after some controversial decisions in his side’s 1-1 draw with Brentford. The PGMOL were forced to stand intended fourth official Darren England down at the City Ground after his mistake on Saturday night when, as VAR in Tottenham’s game against Liverpool, he failed to act properly in overturning the decision to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal for offside. And both managers were left complaining after the draw as Nicolas Dominguez’s header cancelled out Christian Norgaard’s opener, which came immediately after Moussa Niakhate was sent off. That is the decision that irked Cooper the most, the boss insisting that his defender’s tackle, where he raked his studs down Yoane Wissa’s calf, was accidental. Cooper said: “Honestly, if he doesn’t give him a second yellow, nobody mentions it. All of your colleagues on TV and radio have said the same. “With it being the only Premier League game of the day, the PGMOL needed a real clean day and unfortunately they have got the opposite. We want to help referees, we will moan and complain as much as anyone else, it is just the nature of it. “We’ll try and do it respectfully, but sometimes it’s hard. They have got to help themselves. I’m annoyed with the first yellow, he shouldn’t have lunged in. The second yellow would not even have been mentioned…of course it was accidental. “You need football understanding to see that. It’s a contact game. “Some have gone for us, so I’m not sitting here saying we’re hard done by. We all want refereeing to be at the right level and we all want to help them and they have to help themselves. The last thing they needed today was talking points about decision-making, but that’s what they’ve got. “Come on, let’s work together and we will help. Some things have gone in our favour, not as much as have gone against us. This league is amazing and every part of it needs to be at that level.” Brentford boss Thomas Frank says he is “tired” of talking about VAR after he thought his side were denied a clear penalty. Frank believes Wissa was fouled by Matt Turner early in the second half when he closed down the Forest goalkeeper and was caught by Turner’s follow through, while Brentford also had two penalty appeals turned down. Referee Paul Tierney did not give anything and the incident was not even checked by VAR Michael Oliver. “I am tired of talking about it, I understand you guys need to ask the question,” he said. “I just want to talk about performances. “I think the two handball situations, some managers would claim them as penalty, I won’t. I think I would really hate that if they were given against my team. “But the Wissa one is a clear penalty, you can’t go through the man, that is an unfortunate mistake from VAR, especially when that is clear and obvious. “Unfortunately our players are too honest, we need to be a little bit more nasty, I would never say that to the players, I like honest players.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live The final day in pictures as Europe win the Ryder Cup Rory McIlroy says US antics put ‘fire in our bellies’ as Europe regain Ryder Cup Luke Donald emotional after ‘stressful’ Ryder Cup win
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Nottingham Forest earn point against Brentford despite Moussa Niakhate red card
Nicolas Dominguez scored his first goal for 10-man Nottingham Forest as they held on for a 1-1 draw against Brentford at the City Ground. Things looked bleak for Forest as they went down to 10 men just before the hour when Moussa Niakhate picked up a second yellow card, and immediately conceded to Christian Norgaard from the resulting free-kick. But they rallied and Argentina international Dominguez levelled soon after with a looping header that Bees goalkeeper Mark Flekken appeared to misjudge. Forest were able to see out the remaining 35 minutes with relative comfort to maintain their unbeaten start to the season on home soil. The draw means Brentford have now gone five games without a win as their tricky start to the campaign continues. There was a change to the match officials’ line-up after Darren England was dropped as fourth official following his mistake on Saturday night when, as VAR in Tottenham’s game against Liverpool, he failed to act properly in overturning the decision to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal for offside. Craig Pawson was drafted in on the touchline and his colleagues in Stockley Park had an early test as Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi converted from close range after Willy Boly’s header from a corner. He was immediately ruled offside but it was closer than it initially looked, with VAR Michael Oliver this time consulting the horizontal lines to confirm the decision. The game could have done with that early goal standing as a drab first half followed, with nothing of interest happening until added time when a short free-kick routine saw Norgaard advance into the box but his deflected shot was palmed away by Matt Turner. The second half immediately brought more entertainment as Brentford were close to taking the lead when Yoane Wissa closed down Turner and the ball trickled towards the net but Boly cleared. Forest endured a chastening couple of minutes just before the hour that led to the Bees taking the lead. Niakhate fouled Wissa, raking his studs up the back of his opponent’s leg, with referee Paul Tierney brandishing a second yellow card. And from the resulting free-kick Norgaard got goalside and nodded Mathias Jensen’s delivery into the corner, with the goal surviving a lengthy review for offside. Forest’s response was admirable, though, and they levelled eight minutes later as Harry Toffolo’s cross found Dominguez and his header looped over Flekken, with the goalkeeper appearing to pull his hand away as it went over him. The final half-hour was an attack versus defence exercise as Brentford pushed to make their numerical advantage count, but they came up against a resolute Forest rearguard. Morgan Gibbs-White produced a fine goal-saving tackle as the Bees broke at speed while debutant defender Murillo cleared off the line from Michael Olakigbe, with Norgaard firing over from the rebound. Forest put bodies on the line to see out 13 minutes of injury time and earn a valuable point. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Tom Curry raring to make England return ahead of final World Cup group game Rory McIlroy emotional after vital Ryder Cup singles win That win goes down to the manager – Craig Dawson hails Gary O’Neil
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That win goes down to the manager – Craig Dawson hails Gary O’Neil
Craig Dawson praised Wolves boss Gary O’Neil after their shock win over Manchester City. The defender kept Erling Haaland quiet as Wolves earned a battling 2-1 win at Molineux on Saturday. Hwang Hee-chan struck a second-half winner after Julian Alvarez had cancelled out Ruben Dias’ early own goal. O’Neil had come in for early criticism from supporters, especially after Tuesday’s 3-2 Carabao Cup defeat at Ipswich, but Dawson insisted the manager deserved all the plaudits from Saturday. He said: “A lot of credit has to go to the manager for getting us so organised, with the game plan, and getting us fully prepared for the match, which he has done for every single game. That win goes down to the manager. “It was a massive win and it was great to see this place bouncing. “It’s clear at times we were man to man and the players stuck to that task brilliantly and stuck to the game plan for the full duration of the game, which is great for the lads. “It was all about concentration and keeping focused and credit to the manager for preparing us, getting us organised, and today we stuck to the plan and managed to get the victory.” Defeat ended City’s flawless start to the Premier League season but they remain top, a point ahead of Tottenham and Arsenal – with a trip to the Emirates Stadium to come on Sunday. “We’re all a bit disappointed now of course. We should have done more I guess,” midfielder Oscar Bobb told the club’s official site. “We pushed for it and unfortunately didn’t get it. Leipzig (in the Champions League on Wednesday) is next, a big game ahead and then Arsenal. We’re only thinking forward. “It’s not the greatest feeling, losing. I just want to keep pushing for more. “It gives us the chance to prove that we’re still the best team, so we’re looking forward to it.”
2023-10-01 22:48
VAR officials who made Liverpool error took charge of UAE match just 48 hours before
Questions have been raised within the game over whether the VAR team at fault for a major error in Tottenham’s win against Liverpool on Saturday night were fatigued. It has emerged that VAR officials Darren England and Dan Cook had made a six-hour flight from the United Arab Emirates the day before, after taking charge of a league game between Al Ain and Sharjah in the UAE Pro League on Thursday night. VAR England and assistant Cook made a “significant human error” when they failed to overturn Luis Diaz’s wrongly disallowed goal in the first half of Tottenham’s 2-1 win. Both referees have since been stood down for Sunday afternoon’s match between Nottingham Forest and Brentford as well as Monday night’s game between Fulham and Chelsea. The referees’ body the PGMOL have put the error for Diaz’s offside down to a “momentary lapse of concentration”, and questions have now been raised within the Premier League over whether workload fatigue played a part. A flight between London and the UAE takes at least six hours, with the officiating team of Michael Oliver, England and Cook only arriving back on Friday. A variety of sources have pointed to how teams in the Europa League don’t play until Sunday after a Thursday evening game. Officials who work in those same continental fixtures are usually fourth officials or VAR on Saturdays and on-field from Sunday, but that generally comes after much shorter travel than a trip to the Gulf. The explanation so far put forth for the error is that the VAR for the Liverpool game thought they were checking whether Diaz’s goal should stand rather than whether it was offside, which is what on-field referee Simon Hooper had actually ruled. That created the farcical situation of a "check complete" communication leading to a fair strike being ruled out in completely preventable fashion. What is not clear, however, is when the VAR officials realised that they had failed to intervene. Under the rules of the game, when Tottenham took the free kick to restart the match, the officials would have been unable to go back and award Diaz’s goal. It has since been confirmed that Oliver, Cook and England were involved in officiating in the UAE in midweek. An approach had been made to the Football Association and was subsequently approved by PGMOL chief Howard Webb, with it not affecting their availability to be selected for Premier League fixtures. Webb has since got in touch with Liverpool to apologise for the decision, as has become protocol. Liverpool went on to finish the match with nine men and suffered stoppage-time heartbreak when Joel Matip deflected Pedro Porro’s cross into his own net in the sixth minute of stoppage time, but the post-match discussions focused on the crucial first-half error. “Who does that help now? We had that situation in the Wolves-Man United game. Did Wolves get the points? No,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp reflected when informed of the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) statement. “We will not get points for it so it doesn’t help. Nobody expects 100 per cent right decisions on [the] field but we all thought when VAR comes in that it might make things easier. “I don’t know why the people... are they that much under pressure? Today the decision was made really quick, I would say, for that goal. It changed the momentum of the game, so that’s how it is.” Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher reacted to the decision on Twitter/X and said: “It’s an horrendous mistake no matter how they did it. But if they knew just after the Spurs free-kick was taken that they’d made a huge mistake, it’s nonsense they can’t bring it back just because a free-kick has been taken.” Read More Bizarre reason why Liverpool goal wrongly ruled out by VAR revealed VAR officials who missed Liverpool’s ‘onside’ goal to be replaced PGMOL admit Liverpool offside goal should have stood after ‘significant human error’ VAR officials who missed Liverpool’s ‘onside’ goal to be replaced Bizarre reason why Liverpool goal wrongly ruled out by VAR revealed PGMOL admit Liverpool goal should have stood after ‘significant error’
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