Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was “removed by security” after Nottingham Forest’s dramatic defeat to Liverpool, as Mark Clattenburg hit out at the officiating that led to Darwin Nunez’s late goal.
The Liverpool forward headed home in the 99th-minute to earn the visitors a 1-0 win at the City Ground, moving them four points clear at the top of the Premier League before Manchester City and Arsenal get the chance to once again close that gap.
Nunez flicked a header into the bottom corner from a Alexis Mac Allister cross, but it was an incident earlier in stoppage-time that left Forest furious.
Two minutes before that goal, play was stopped with Forest in possession after Ibrahima Konate went down holding his head from a corner.
Referee Paul Tierney incorrectly returned the ball to Liverpool as the match was restarted, with the Reds going on to snatch a last-gasp winner.
Forest coach Steven Reid was shown a red card after confronting Tierney on the pitch, while BBC 5Live reporter Rob Schofield revealed Marinakis, who was also pitchside after the full-time whistle, made his anger clear too.
“You rarely see scenes like that in the tunnel,” Schofield said.
“We saw Steven Reid getting frustrated, he and Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis pursued Paul Tierney and [the fourth official] Graham Scott all the way to the referees’ office. [Marinakis was] yelling at them, ‘Respect the players! Respect the players! This happens every week! Respect the players!’
“Marinakis had to be removed by security at one stage.”
Former referee Clattenburg recently took on an advisory role at Forest, with the club consulting him on decisions that go against them and the 48-year-old is also expected to liaise with chief refereeing officer Howard Webb when required.
That is likely to be the case in the coming days, after Clattenburg, who somewhat bizarrely spoke to the media after Liverpool’s late winner, revealed he was prevented from meeting with Tierney.
“I went to go into his dressing room but he wouldn’t allow [me] to,” Clattenburg said.
“The owner’s quite upset, because they fought, he’s invested a lot of money in the football club and he wants to see results. He feels that another decision has gone against the football club.
“Today there was another example where the law is quite clear. The law states that if the referee is going to stop the game - which he’s entitled to if he feels there’s a head injury - the ball has to go back to the team that has possession. Nottingham Forest clearly had possession.
“You can understand the frustration tonight; things seem to be going against Nottingham Forest Football Club. We just hope the luck changes in the future.”
