8 months ago
139 Gary Neville has issued his verdict on the mistake Paul Tierney made shortly before Liverpool got their winning goal against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Saturday’s clash at the City Ground certainly ended in controversial circumstances. Forest were punished for not taking their chances as Darwin Nunez bagged the only goal in the 99th minute.
The home side however, were furious as the goal came less than two minutes after the referee had made a real mistake. Paul Tierney stopped play after Ibrahima Konate went down in the penalty area after colliding with Caoimhin Kelleher.
Gary Neville reacts to controversy in Liverpool win at Nottingham Forest
When the official stopped play, Forest had the ball. And yet oddly, the game restarted with an uncontested drop ball involving Kelleher. So you could understand why the home supporters were so annoyed about the decision.
Certainly, there does not appear to be any question that Tierney made the wrong decision to give Liverpool possession again. But the reason that there has been so much discussion about it is the fact that the winning goal came shortly after.
But speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast, Gary Neville admitted that he does not understand the amount of anger which has followed Tierney’s mistake.
“It’s interesting, Peter. Mike [Dean] was here talking before, and I saw his interview before the game today, where he described it as a monumental error,” he said.
“And I watched it and I thought, yeah there’s no doubt the Nottingham Forest player was just in possession, and there’s no doubt that Nottingham Forest should have got the ball back.
“But the goal came one minute and 50 after. Two minutes in football is an absolute age. So the idea that it was a monumental error because obviously they got the law wrong, I get the fact it was a mistake, it was a frustration, but I get the feeling now that we’re making what I think would be a run of the mill error, that’s something you might see quite regularly in a season, being described as a massive, massive thing.”
Anger understandable, but decision didn’t hand Reds victory
You can definitely understand the anger from Forest fans. There is often a feeling that sides towards the top of the table get the benefit of the doubt on more decisions. And that error definitely benefitted Liverpool.
However, Forest could have lost possession and still conceded anyway. Admittedly, it would have been much less likely. But it was still possible.
That mistake did not put Liverpool in front. As Neville suggests, there was some time between the incident and Nunez’s goal.
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