Summary Nottingham Forest have lodged an official complaint with PGMOL over the poor standard of officiating by Stuart Attwell and his team during their match against Manchester United. Forest's anger stems not only from the recent incident involving Joe Worrall's red card, but also from Attwell's past questionable performance in a Championship game in the past Club owner Evangelos Marinakis is prepared to take action against what he perceives as consistently poor officiating standards and wants to hold Attwell accountable for his decisions.
Nottingham Forest have officially submitted a complaint to the referees’ body PGMOL after expressing their “anger” at the standard of officiating from Stuart Attwell and his team against Manchester United – though the issue stems from an incident which occurred a few seasons ago.
Why are Nottingham Forest upset with Stuart Attwell?
On Saturday afternoon in the Premier League, things started so well for Steve Cooper and his team at Old Trafford as they raced to a 2-0 lead inside four minutes thanks to goals from Taiwo Awoniyi and Willy Boly.
From there, however, the game only went downhill for the away team. Indeed, Christian Eriksen pulled one back by tapping home Marcus Rashford's low cross in the 17th minute and shortly after halftime Casemiro had made it 2-2.
Then, in the 67th minute, drama struck as Joe Worrall was sent off for a challenge on United captain Bruno Fernandes. Referee Stuart Attwell adjudged the defender to be the last man – although Willy Boly seemed to be covering – and VAR backed the on-field call, leaving Forest down to ten men.
Man Utd then found a winner thanks to some helpful refereeing again when Rashford was brought down by a small touch from midfielder Danilo, allowing Fernandes to make it 3-2 from the penalty spot.
You can see the highlights below:
Nottingham Forest complain to PGMOL
Manager Cooper was unhappy with those two aforementioned key decisions and also wanted a red card for Scott McTominay late in the game for a high foot on Cheikhou Kouyate (via ESPN).
As a result of Forest's anger, as per The Telegraph, owner Evangelos Marinakis and his head coach are still furious about the incident and have now submitted an official complaint to PGMOL after expressing their “anger” at the performance of Attwell and his team.
What's more, the report also notes that the Greek businessman is now ready to take action over what he believes to have been consistently poor standards.
The club's concerns over Attwell's display are understood to stem from his performance in a Championship game against Bournemouth back in the 2021/22 season former forward Sam Surridge was not awarded a penalty after an incorrect offside decision went against him – you can see the footage via Sky Sports.
Speaking to the press immediately after the Man Utd game, Cooper was clearly furious, saying (via Yahoo): "In games like this you need things to be how they should. I am not going to talk too much as I don't want to get into trouble but I was surprised how quickly the decisions were made.
"You just bite your tongue in terms of what [you] really feel but of course they were defining moments."
What's more, of course, this isn't the only time some big calls have gone Man United's way at Old Trafford already this season. After all, goalkeeper Andre Onana somehow avoided punishment when crashing into Wolves forward Sasa Kalajdzic inside his own box in the club's 1-0 home win to kick off their season.
It'll certainly be interesting to see how the PGMOL respond to this criticism from Nottingham Forest and if it results in an apology or if they back the decisions made by Attwell and his team at Old Trafford over the weekend.
