Gary Neville has explained that he didn’t like something which Nottingham Forest did on Saturday after their defeat to Liverpool.
Forest lost 1-0 – with Darwin Nunez scoring in the 99th minute – and Neville has been speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast.
So, what has Neville said about Forest after the game against Liverpool? Let’s take a closer look…
What Gary Neville said about incident involving Forest
Well, it would appear that Neville doesn’t have too much sympathy for Forest – probably because it didn’t happen to his beloved Manchester United!
Forest were on the wrong end of another horrendous refereeing decision, this time courtesy of Paul Tierney.
When the game was stopped due to an injury from Ibrahim Konate, Callum Hudson-Odoi was in possession of the ball.
The Forest man didn’t get the ball back, however, with Tierney allowing Caoimhin Kelleher the chance to punt the ball long instead.
Neville believes that the fact Forest conceded one minute and 50 seconds after that incident has no bearing on how things panned out.
He told The Gary Neville Podcast: “I get the feeling now that we are making a run-of-the-mill error, something you might see quite regularly in a season, as being described as a massive, massive thing.
“The owner on the side of the pitch and the Clattenburg nonsense, I can’t have that. I can’t buy into it is what I mean. I feel we are pushing the boundaries towards inciting more anger and hate towards referees and I do feel at some point it will become quite dangerous.
“You can’t complain about a refereeing decision that was 1 minute 50 before you concede a goal. 1 minute 50? Fair enough, five or 10 seconds, I think you would be fuming, if they came up the other end of the pitch and scored.
“Yes, it’s an error and there’s no doubt it’s a mistake and Forest should have had the ball and then the game would change but there’s no saying Liverpool wouldn’t have scored in a different way.
“Liverpool have got that something about them at the moment which you that is a likely thing to happen.”
Neville makes comments that feel a little bit rich
Neville is a pundit for Sky Sports. The same Sky Sports has a programme called Ref Watch, designed to belittle referees and throw them under the bus every week.
So, you’ll have to forgive us Gary, but your comments on Forest are a little bit rich here.
Okay, should Evangelos Marinakis have come down to the pitch? Absolutely not. Is he entitled to be pitchside at his own football club? Yes.
Neville makes some good points that nobody wants the situation towards referees to become dangerous akin to the horrible scenes in Turkey some months back.
However, Forest need to pile the pressure on in some fashion because it’s become pathetic now with bad decisions happening every single week.
They say that things even themselves out over the course of the season. On that basis, Forest can look forward to about seven penalties between now and May.
Neville’s comments are admirable to a certain degree and referees at the grassroots level do need more protecting.
However, at the top level they are paid handsome salaries and some football clubs have simply had enough.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
