West Ham vs Nottingham Forest ref watch: Three decisions Tony Harrington got wrong
Tony Harrington had a huge task on his hands as West Ham and Nottingham Forest met in a Premier League six-pointer at the London Stadium.
Football Insider understands that West Ham already plan to sack Nuno Espirito Santo, with Sean Dyche under almost identical pressure at the City Ground, as both teams battle for survival.
Both teams headed into the game on Tuesday, 6 January, off the back of defeats, with West Ham losing 3-0 to Wolves, while Forest fell to a 3-1 loss at Villa Park.
To put it lightly, absolutely everything was on the line in East London.
Emotions were bound to bubble over due to the circumstances, and with that in mind, here were three decisions that Harrington got wrong during the Reds’ 2-1 win.
Ola Aina gets away with early elbow on Taty Castellanos
Ola Aina is still working towards full fitness, having been injured since September, but he had no trouble stopping the Hammers’ new striker dead in his path in the opening 45 minutes.
With the Argentine charging forwards, Aina threw a blatant elbow in an attempt to stop him. Harrington saw the entire incident, and instead of cautioning him, he issued a warning.
That may have only encouraged other players to make careless challenges.
West Ham robbed of Crysencio Summerville’s goal
Social media exploded after West Ham’s second goal was ruled out for offside, and there should have been a much longer debate over the decision. Harrington possibly should have been sent to the monitor.
Taty Castellanos was in an offside position when the ball bounced to him, but that only happened as a result of Nikola Milenkovic‘s tackle on Crysencio Summerville just before.
IFAB rules have been screenshotted by many on social media, leaving plenty of questions over the current laws.
Tony Harrington refuses to give blatant free-kick on Summerville
Despite an awful first half from the winger, Summerville grew into the game, even after having a goal disallowed, and he should have won his side an extremely dangerous free-kick.
Right on the edge of Forest’s penalty area, Elliot Anderson brought him down, but Harrington, believing the player had gone down too easily, told him to get up and allowed play to continue.
While there was limited contact, anyone moving at that speed would have gone down in that area.