Webb admits Forest deserved spot-kick

Howard Webb has admitted Nottingham Forest should have been awarded at least one penalty in their recent highly-charged fixture against Premier League relegation rivals Everton.

Everton claimed a 2-0 win at Goodison Park on April 21 but Forest were incandescent that three separate penalty appeals were ignored by referee Anthony Taylor, with VAR Stuart Attwell not interfering.

Webb, the chief refereeing officer of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), believes Ashley Young’s challenge on Giovanni Reyna and his potential handball were both open to interpretation.

But speaking during the Match Officials: Mic’d Up programme Webb accepts Young’s tackle on Callum Hudson-Odoi should have led to Attwell directing Taylor to review the on-field decision.

“The referee waves away the penalty appeal,” Webb said. “We did hear Anthony Taylor in the footage say that he believed the ball had been played by Ashley Young, and we know that’s not the case.

“We know only Callum Hudson-Odoi touches the ball.

“The VAR looks at it and asks himself the question ‘Was the non-award clearly and obviously wrong?’ and came to the conclusion it wasn’t.

“You hear him describing two players tussling for the ball. He doesn’t see a clear action by Young that he considers to be worthy of intervention, one that reaches the threshold of being very clear.

“We would have preferred an intervention for the referee to go to the screen to make a judgment in this situation and probably would have come out with a different outcome if that would’ve happened.”

Forest issued an extraordinary statement immediately after the match, saying they had warned PGMOL that Attwell was a Luton fan – another relegation rival – but that the referees’ body did not change his appointment.

Forest called for the audio to be released publicly, but later accepted an offer from PGMOL to hear it in private.

The Premier League is investigating Forest’s statement related to Attwell to determine whether it breached competition rules, while the Football Association asked for observations from Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo, fullback Neco Williams and referee analyst Mark Clattenburg over comments they made about the officiating.