Nottingham Forest were left to rue another string of decisions that went against the team during a 1-0 defeat to Fulham on Saturday.

In truth, this performance wasn’t good enough from a Forest perspective and there is some work to do for Nuno Espirito Santo.

The Forest head coach chose to go with four central midfielders from the off, playing two strikers in attack and leaving four wingers on the bench.

Forest conceded the game’s only goal when Raul Jimenez scored from the penalty spot after Murillo was adjudged to have fouled Andreas Pereira.

The decision was deemed a clear and obvious error by the VAR – yet he was nowhere to be seen in the second half when Anthony Elanga was clearly fouled by Calvin Bassey.

Forest played in front of the England manager Lee Carsley on Saturday and even he was likely left baffled by some of the VAR decisions in the game.

Richard Keys defends Nottingham Forest over VAR incident

Some say it was clumsy – others think it was accidental – but one way or another Forest can count themselves very unlucky once again with VAR.

Murillo comes through the back of Pereira, a penalty kick. Bassey goes through the ball of Elanga and then wins the ball, not even as much as an on-field review. Make it make sense!

Certainly, BeIN Sports anchor Keys is struggling to make sense of things and he’s defended Forest for the inconsistencies with the system so far this season.

He said on his personal blog: “I’ve nothing but sympathy with Forest’s belief that the poor standard of refereeing is blighting the game. What a joke that pen award was at The City Ground. Whatever happened to ‘the referee’s call’? Remember? It was point one in a six-point review conducted by Howard Webb – more on-field decisions and less VAR intervention. Can’t help themselves can they?”

VAR in the current state isn’t fit for purpose

This isn’t a case of Forest fans moaning for the sake of moaning but just when are the Reds going to get something from the VAR?

Forest were denied stonewall penalties last season in games against Everton, Newcastle and West Ham and Fulham can now be added to the list.

The Reds aren’t pleading with the PGMOL for the sake of it. Marinakis doesnt’t get a kick out of being angry towards them, he simply wants consistency to become common practice in this particular workplace.

Forest fans have given up on VAR. The Reds fan base now boos the Premier League anthem and there is no way in a million years that the penalty given away by Murillo would be awarded had one of the big six have made the challenge.

Given the open nature of Forest and their complaints it appears they’re an easy target for referees and the club needs to keep taking the option to vent their frustration in the media.

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