Nottingham Forest were disappointing in their defeat against Everton, but it was an incident in the early stages that has provided a talking point.
After Everton had taken an early lead against Forest at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, a flashpoint took place minutes later when James Tarkowski seemed to strike Dan Ndoye off the ball.
It’s believed that the VAR took a look at the incident but quickly allowed play to continue, with Tarkowski getting away with the incident without so much as a yellow card.
Ndoye required lengthy treatment, with Forest now completing an official complaint to the PGMOL.
Jay Bothroyd and Dermot Gallagher disagree on Dan Ndoye incident
It’s interesting that the former referee didn’t think there was too much wrong with the barbaric act from Tarkowski, whilst the ex-professional footballer sided with Forest.
Gallagher said: “I was watching the game – it didn’t leap out to me.
“Why he’s done it, I don’t know, I think if the referee sees it, it’s going to be a yellow card. It didn’t cross my mind that it could be a red card.”
Bothroyd, however, felt that Tarkowski was extremely lucky to get away with his actions.
He added: “I think that is a red card. He’s gone behind him, he’s shoulder checked him in his back, maybe even higher, in the back of his neck. It’s aggressive; he doesn’t need to do it.
“Because the forward doesn’t know what he’s going to do, you can see the way his head has jolted back. It’s aggressive, and I think that should have been given as a red card.”
The inconsistencies are making a mockery of the referees
By not dealing with this incident on the day, the rest of the league will now feel that this sort of act is acceptable.
Should James Tarkowski have seen red for his challenge on Dan Ndoye
This is going to cause a problem for Howard Webb because a number of players are going to be going in hard when the ball isn’t even in play, and players aren’t even looking at each other!
Forest will feel hard done by in this game, even if their performance levels didn’t really warrant a result of any sort across the afternoon.
However, only a fortnight ago, Everton had Idrissa Gueye sent off for appearing to slap Michael Keane across the face with far less force than Tarkowski used on Ndoye.
It’s pretty crazy how bad the officials have got and on this occasion, Bothroyd is spot on!
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
