Nuno Espirito Santo dropped his shoulders and let out a sigh as he reflected on a frustrating afternoon for Nottingham Forest. The Portuguese was responding to a question about refereeing decisions when he gave a noticeable puff of the cheeks, but his reaction pretty much summed up the Reds’ afternoon as a whole. It was exasperating all round.
A first defeat of the Premier League season shouldn’t detract from what has been a fine start to the campaign for Forest, regardless of how flat they were against Fulham. But it did highlight just how important Morgan Gibbs-White is to the team. The suspended England international was a big miss at the City Ground.
This was not how the Reds would have wanted their unbeaten run to come to an end, with a controversial penalty at one end and two appeals in the other box dismissed. Below, we look at some of the big talking points from Forest’s 1-0 loss. Just as at Brighton and Hove Albion a week ago, there is really only one place to start when looking back at Saturday.
Already facing a Football Association charge after being sent off at the Amex Stadium, Nuno chose his words carefully in his post-match press conference. “We don’t want to talk too much about referees,” began one of the questions. “So don’t keep asking,” came the very quick response from the Reds head coach.
Senior officials at the club are understood to be growing increasingly frustrated with the recent standard of officiating. On this occasion, the consis.