Nottingham Forest have a love-hate relationship with match officials in the sense that the club simply loves to hate them!
Last season, the Reds were on the wrong end of a host of appalling decisions, with a number of apologies sent to the club from Howard Webb.
Richard Keys recently defended Forest over their concerns after Fulham secured a big win at the City Ground on the back of a hotly contest penalty.
The club have received nothing from the PGMOL after that game, with Anthony Elanga denied a clear penalty later in the very same fixture.
Forest drew with Chelsea on Sunday in a game that proved somewhat chaotic in the second half with two goals and a host of cards.
James Ward-Prowse was sent off for two yellow cards for Forest and it means he will miss the Crystal Palace game after the international break.
Noni Madueke admitted that Forest left Chelsea frustrated and Nuno Espirito Santo vented some of his own frustrations after the game.
Nottingham Forest boss Espirito Santo shares officials concern
The Reds boss had to watch on as he saw one of his players shown a second yellow card for the second successive away game.
Ward-Prowse helped Forest score the goal on Sunday and he will prove to be a big miss against Palace next time out
Espirito Santo suggested he didn’t have any complaints but did share what he’d like the match officials to start doing more often.
He told the Daily Mail: “I cannot judge the yellow card for James Ward-Prowse. He did it for the team. It was one-versus-one.
“What I am trying to say is please referees understand that we are there on the touchline and on the pitch, it gets very emotional.
“There are so many things happening, so many thoughts, so many circumstances. I must apologise for my behaviour, but I didn’t do anything that another manager wouldn’t.
“I must analyse each one for a proper judgement.”
Forest can have no complaints over James Ward-Prowse red card
Fans would be wise to take some of the heat away from Ward-Prowse. He took one for the team and what he did was no different to a petulant trip that is commonplace in modern-day football.
However, perhaps Espirito Santo has a point with some common sense being applied when it comes to referees dishing out cards.
Certain stuff in football makes for easy yellow cards but the ones for emotional situations could perhaps be altered to a certain degree.
Nobody wants the passion to be taken out of football and in Espirito Santo, Forest have a head coach who always wears his heart on his sleeve when he’s trying to oversee three points for his team.
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