‘Really, really frustrating’ – Ex-Tottenham player backs Nottingham Forest outrage at referee
Morgan Gibbs-White was backed live by a Sky Sports pundit amid outrage towards the officials as Nottingham Forest took on Tottenham.
Tottenham took on Sean Dyche’s Forest after ex-Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou was sacked earlier this season, and the home side dominated the first half.
Ibrahim Sangare had already hit the post when he robbed Archie Gray as the youngster was receiving a hospital pass from Guglielmo Vicario 28 minutes in, squaring for Callum Hudson-Odoi to tap home.
The first 45 ended with a chorus of boos raining down from the home fans though as fury built up towards the officials, sparked in large part by a glaring error from Thomas Bramall and his assistants after 38 minutes.
Andy Reid backs Morgan Gibbs-White shock vs Tottenham
As a cross came over into the Tottenham box from the Forest right Gibbs-White attempted to flick it towards goal between his legs, but didn’t get a proper contact on it.
Instead Rodrigo Bentancur unwittingly performed the same move right behind him and the ball rolled narrowly wide of the far post for what looked like an obvious corner, only for Bramall to award a goal kick.
Gibbs-White raced towards the official as thousands of supporters roared in outrage at the error, but to no avail, and Andy Reid backed the negative emotions.
Reacting live on the Sky Sports match commentary the ex-Spurs and Forest midfielder said: “These are the ones that the players get really, really frustrated at. And you can understand as well.
“Everybody in the ground could see that’s come off a Tottenham player out for a corner, just expecting the referee to point to the corner flag and he points for a goal kick.
“They’re really, really frustrating ones for players and for coaches. They’re the simple ones. The referee’s looking at it, should get that right.”
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Vicario and Gray self-destruct
Tottenham’s win at home against Brentford last week, backed up by a Champions League win over Slavia Prague had settled some of the growing chaos for Thomas Frank.
But there was zero in terms of momentum in the first half at the City Ground as Forest were by far the better side.
Even so Spurs helped make it easy for them as Vicario and Gray’s nightmare moment handed them the opener on a plate, with the midfielder apparently unaware of his surroundings as Sangare was close behind him, and the keeper gave him the ball in trouble anyway.
They were hardly the only Tottenham players being careless in possession as Xavi Simons was at least one other who saw an aimless pass in his own half intercepted to almost put his side in danger.
Frank needs a seriously-improved performance from his players to get back into this and avoid more questions springing up around his job heading into Christmas.
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