Nottingham Forest fans were incensed after Darwin Núñez’s dramatic late winner for Liverpool at the City Ground. The Uruguayan striker stepped off the bench after his recent injury absence to head in Alexis Mac Allister’s cross after a chaotic final few minutes.
Forest had threatened to score themselves and had a corner, which was cleared out to Callum Hudson-Odoi out wide. But referee Paul Tierney blew up and stopped play due to a head injury to Ibrahima Konaté after he collided with goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher.
Instead of giving possession back to the home side, Tierney dropped an uncontested ball to Liverpool goalkeeper Kelleher, much to the dismay of the Forest coaching staff and support.
Liverpool then scored two minutes later through Núñez to spark jubilant scenes in the away end as Jürgen Klopp’s side went four points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Video footage emerged on social media via The Anfield Wrap, showing a fan’s reaction from the home end after the late goal. One supporter can be heard shouting: “That is a disgrace”, before adding: “That is disgusting! That’s beyond a disgrace… look at that. That is a disgrace. That is an absolute robbery and nothing less. That is absolutely disgusting.”
Alan Shearer analyzed the goal on Match of the Day and declared it “totally wrong” before former referee Dermot Gallagher suggested Tierney did not apply the correct laws of the game.
“Kelleher hits Konate and then if you run it on, watch the referee,” he told Premier League Productions. “If you stop the pictures now, this is when the referee is whistling. He whistled when Hudson-Odoi had the ball.
“Now, the law states, if he [Tierney] had stopped it when Konate got hit by Kelleher, the ball would have to be dropped in the penalty area and it would be dropped to Kelleher. Not a problem.
“But the ball has been cleared from the box, Paul Tierney hadn’t whistled and he should give the ball back to Hudson-Odoi, who would then have the ball uncontested. He didn’t do it, for whatever reason, Paul Tierney didn’t do that.
“All it is is an incorrect restart in law. The fact that Liverpool scored is a bit of a red herring myself because it was 1 minute 50 seconds [later], which is an entirety on the pitch. The ball comes forward, it goes back, goes forward and even goes out for a throw-in. It’s just an incorrect restart in law, for me, it doesn’t directly attribute to a goal.”