Sean Dyche slams Premier League referee as Nottingham Forest left with 'awful thing'

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Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche slammed the officials after his side's 2-1 defeat to Manchester City, insisting they decided the game.

Tijjani Reijnders had opened the scoring for the visitors in the 48th minute at the City Ground before Omari Hutchinson equalised six minutes later. That looked likely to secure the home side a share of the spoils, until Rayan Cherki struck seven minutes from time.

However, the France star's finish only came after Forest were left furious by referee Rob Jones' decision not to award them a free-kick. And when it was put to Dyche post-game that perhaps he thought a couple of decisions may have not gone in his side's favour, he took aim.

"A couple? Possibly! There's no thought [about it]," declared the Forest boss. "Obviously, we've all seen it back.

“It’s an awful thing when you have played so well to have to come in and talk about the officials affecting the game. But they clearly did; everyone in the stadium and everyone watching at home would have seen that.

“It was such an easy game to referee, in my opinion, and such an easy decision for VAR. I can't work out where football is with that sometimes.

“I'm a big fan of VAR, but I can't work out how you can't get that right. Morgan Gibbs-White quite clearly gets pushed to the floor, and the same player is then involved in blocking the ball. But he can't block it because as he jumps up, it goes through the bit of his body which he would have blocked it with. Whichever way you look at it, it's a foul.

"And then they'll say, 'Yeah, the ball wasn't near him'. And you go, 'OK, so if the ball's not near the keeper and you push the keeper to the floor, is that going to be a foul then?'. We all know it is. I can't work it out. And then they score from it, which is the double whammy.

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“A player in the first half boots the ball away. In the 1980s, when I was playing, you boot the ball away, you get booked. He boots the ball into the crowd and then goes down on the floor injured apparently. How's that? Nothing happened?

“Same player brings Igor (Jesus) down in the second half. They say it's an accident. If that's an accident when he's running through on goal we all know what happens. You get a red card. So why is it an accident and he isn't yellow carded then?

“I just find it bizarre, I really do. And I think these are easy things to referee. I don’t think that’s a hardship. Just give him a second yellow, that's it, off you go.

“I'm absolutely stunned. I’m a big fan of referees and think they have a really hard job, and they manage to do it really well. But why am I getting in trouble (for speaking out)?”

Dyche was pleased with what he saw from his side, adding: “Great pride in the team today. We limited them to low-level chances and created some big moments ourselves.

“So many great performances. It’s unfortunate we’re having to speak about other things. It’s unfathomable, for me.”

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