Brice Samba could have been saved from his red card against Stoke City at the weekend if Leigh Doughty had better managed the situation according to ex-FIFA ref Keith Hackett.
Samba was dismissed for lashing out at Phil Jagielka in Saturday's 2-2 draw against the Potters which led to centre-back Joe Worrall going in goal.
Forest's number one has taken plenty of criticism for the incident which has now caused him to miss the next three games through suspension.
And while Hackett agreed the sending off was the correct decision, he said the incident could have been avoided entirely.
"It’s a red card, 100 per cent,” he told Football Insider.
"The referee has taken the right course of action.
“As a referee, if you see a forward challenging a goalkeeper in that situation, instead of running away to take up a position at the halfway line you run towards the potential incident.
“What happened with Brice Samba could have perhaps been avoided. That’s the question – could you avoid it? The answer is yes, it was avoidable. If the referee had better managed the situation he could have prevented it.
“We would all like a policeman on traffic duty to allow us to do a speed of 32mph and not punish us. It is as simple as that. Refereeing is about having a degree of flexibility. The laws allow that.
“What the referee did was correct but it is easy to be wise after the event. Could he learn something from it? Yes. Look at preventing it.”
