Nottingham Forest are said to be preparing an official complaint after another game which saw the referee in the spotlight.
Head coach Steve Cooper hit out at John Brooks’ performance in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Everton. The Reds were particularly incensed with the decision to award a free-kick in the visitors’ favour, which led to their second goal, rather than for a foul on Morgan Gibbs-White.
It seems to have been the final straw for Forest, having been on the end of a number of poor calls this season. As a result, the club are putting together a document “listing the blunders from match officials” to submit to the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOL), according to The Telegraph.
READ MORE: Forest predicted XI as Cooper faces key Spurs decisions
READ MORE: Forest have three undroppables as Cooper makes key point after stalemate
“I’m disappointed with the ref, I’ll be honest,” Cooper said post-match at the weekend. “He had too much impact on the game, and because of the performance there were some defining moments.
“The key one for me was the decision that ended up with the ball going into the box for the second goal. We should have done better with it, but the ball shouldn’t have gone in their in the first place because it was a foul against Morgan.
“And when (James) Tarkowski gets booked on (Renan) Lodi - which was fine, yellow card, no problem - but he’s blown up when Brennan was in a one-v-one. That cannot happen at this level.
“It’s not good for the ref either, because he’s going to be gutted with that and it will probably be looked at. It was a pity really that things like that affect games.”
Toffees boss Sean Dyche also took issue with Brooks, who was replaced as the VAR for two matches last month after wrongly disallowing Brighton a goal against Crystal Palace. Dyche argued a second penalty should have been given against Jack Colback.
“I’m amazed we didn’t get a second penalty, but I don’t know what’s a penalty any more," he said. "If you are on goal and you are going to shoot and the defender puts his foot in front of yours and you kick it, I'm telling you that is a penalty."
Cooper was fined by the Football Association in November after accepting a charge of “improper conduct”. It came after his comments about referee Thomas Bramall following the 1-0 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Forest are said to be “infuriated” by several incidents this term. They include referee Andre Marriner not awarding a penalty for a foul on Gibbs-White during the 2-2 draw with Brentford. Later, an independent panel later concluded VAR should not have intervened when the Bees were awarded a penalty for Dean Henderson’s foul on Yoane Wissa.
What did you make of the referee's performance on Sunday? Have your say in the comments below
READ NEXT
