Credit: Imago

Daniel Lewis

Sun 22 March 2026 16:33, UK

Tottenham fell to defeat against Nottingham Forest in Sunday’s Premier League contest, but Ibrahim Sangare was lucky to avoid being sanctioned in the first half.

That is the view of former FIFA referee Keith Hackett, who exclusively told Tottenham News that referee Michael Oliver needed to do more to clamp down on some quickfire challenges.

Spurs lost the game 3-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium through Igor Jesus’ goal on the stroke of half-time, followed by strikes from Morgan Gibbs-White and Taiwo Awoniyi in the second period.

There had been a few incidents prior to that, including a couple of Tottenham penalty shouts that were rejected by Oliver.

As the dust settles on Spurs’ loss to Forest, Hackett believes the match referee should have been booking Sangare at the very least for a first-half challenge.

Ibrahim Sangare avoids booking for double challenge

Sangare challenged Djed Spence just outside the box and then went into a strong challenge on Archie Gray, which the Spurs youngster came out second best in.

Gray was in real pain afterwards and clearly struggled to shake off the knock, but Sangare had no such issues.

Asked if Sangare was fortunate to avoid entering Oliver’s book, Hackett said: “This was such an untidy phase of play, one in which the referee should have taken firmer action.

“By allowing the first foul to go unpunished, we witnessed a second one that should clearly have been sanctioned with a minimum yellow card.

“So the first one by Sangare stuck a straight leg into his opponent and should have resulted in a yellow card. The challenge was reckless.

“Then there was the second challenge where both men can perhaps consider themselves fortunate.”

Much to Spurs’ frustration, Sangare was booked in the second half for an innocuous challenge, which was likely down to an accumulation of challenges.

Igor Tudor without a win in 10 league games in management

Tottenham’s 3-0 loss to Forest was nothing short of embarrassing.

It begs the question of whether Igor Tudor will now be in charge for the trip to Sunderland after the international break.

Remarkably, when also factoring in his spell at Juventus, Tudor is now 10 league games without a victory.

That is the longest winless run of his career, with the Croatian overseeing just one win in seven games in all competitions in N17 – a Champions League second-leg dead-rubber versus Atletico Madrid.

Some decisions may have gone against Spurs on Sunday, but that does not excuse the players for this.

After being given the full backing of supporters, they chucked it straight back into their faces.