‘He’s got away with one’ – Ex-refs chief analyses James Tarkowski incident as Nottingham Forest contact PGMOL
James Tarkowski should have been sanctioned following an off-the-ball incident between Everton and Nottingham Forest.
That is according to former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA referee, Keith Hackett, who exclusively told Football Insider that Chris Kavanagh missed a key incident as Everton secured a 3-0 win over Forest on Saturday, 6 December.
Hackett has been extremely critical of Kavanagh during the 2025-26 campaign, and it was yet another moment of the referee failing to enforce his authority at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Nicolo Savona took just 20 seconds to pick up the game’s first yellow card, with Thierno Barry and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall compounding Nikola Milenkovic‘s early own goal.
James Tarkowski and Dan Ndoye clash at the Hill Dickinson Stadium
After just 10 minutes, the referee was thrown straight into the action when Tarkowski and Dan Ndoye clashed off the ball, with the defender barging into the latter’s back for no reason.
VAR checked the situation straight away, and while there was unlikely to be enough to show the Toffees centre-half a red card, Hackett believes that those around the referee should have come to his aid.
Tarkowski did eventually go into the referee’s notebook. But had he been cautioned in the opening 10 minutes, he might have been sent off, and the game could have completely changed.
It was not to be, however, as Dewsbury-Hall continued his fine Everton form to put icing on the cake of a very successful afternoon on Merseyside, but the Reds were furious enough to launch a complaint.
Chris Kavanagh misses key incident in Everton vs Nottingham Forest
Hackett, exclusively speaking to Football Insider on The Final Whistle, said: “He definitely got away with one. It’s off the ball, but this is the difficulty for VAR, because it doesn’t fulfil the criteria for a red card for me.
“It’s yellow, and that’ll be what VAR said. To try and defend Tarkowski for this challenge is wrong. He shouldn’t be doing it.
“He’s getting one in without the ball anywhere near. Not to sanction, not to give a yellow card, is a poor bit of officiating. This happened in the sphere of the fourth official.
“The fourth official, or even the assistant referee, could be saying, ‘This needs a sanction, this needs a yellow card’ It’s unsporting behaviour, and he got away with one.”