Keith Hackett furious with Wolves vs Nottingham Forest controversy: ‘It should’ve been a penalty’
Nottingham Forest should have been awarded a penalty for a holding offence before their opener against Wolves was ruled out following a VAR check.
That is according to former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA referee, Keith Hackett, who exclusively told Football Insider that he felt Wolves’ Emmanuel Agdabou was holding Forest’s Morato seconds before the goal was scored and soon disallowed.
Nottingham Forest travelled to Wolves on Wednesday (3 December) night with the hosts still searching for their first Premier League win of the campaign.
Sean Dyche‘s side were beaten 2-0 by Brighton their previous outing, but thought they had taken the lead at Molineux after 38 minutes as Igor Jesus rose highest to score from a corner.
The goal was rightly disallowed after a lengthy VAR check for Dan Ndoye being offside in Sam Johnstone’s line of vision, but Forest will feel aggrieved for another moment that happened in the same phase of play that did not go their way.
Morato was grappled to the floor by Emmanuel Agbadou before disallowed goal
Jesus dispatched his header past Johnstone with ease, but the Wolves goalkeeper immediately complained about Ndoye’s position just infront of him on the goal line.
Robinson was sent to the VAR monitor and confirmed that he had ruled the goal out for the Swiss attacker being offside and in the keeper’s eyeline, but a grapple between Morato and Agbadou was not spotted by him or those at Stockley Park
The pair were in close contact with each other before Omari Hutchinson’s corner had even been swung in, with the Wolves defender seemingly chucking his opposite number to the floor before the header was scored.
A similar moment on Tuesday (2 December) saw Newcastle awarded a penalty against Tottenham as Rodrigo Bentancur was adjudged to have pulled Dan Burn to the floor.
Forest were able to take all three points from the clash as Jesus did eventually get on the scoresheet with a second-half header to win the game 1-0.
Hackett hits out as ‘clear and obvious’ error denies Forest a penalty
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, former PGMOL chief Hackett admitted that the call to rule Forest’s goal out was correct, but referee Robinson and VAR Robert Jones should have seen the grappling incident and given the visitors a spot-kick.
He said: “The officials applied the law correctly to rule the Nottingham Forest goal out for offside the Forest player in an offside position obstructing the view of the goalkeeper.
“However why did (the) referee and VAR take no action on the very clear grappling offence by a Wolves player on an opponent. It should’ve been a penalty kick to Forest.
“Come on referee Robinson, you have to see and punish these holding offences. VAR Robert Jones, this was a clear and obvious error, why didn’t you intervene?
“Stop ignoring these situations, we are supposed to be watching football, not rugby.“