Nottingham Forest defender Neco Williams expressed extreme frustration after seeing a potential winning goal disallowed for handball during a scoreless draw against Tottenham Hotspur.
Speaking to Sky Sports following the match, Williams maintained that his effort was entirely legitimate.
“It’s a goal. VAR is there when there is a clear and obvious error and for me that is not clear and obvious. I’ve seen the images and the replays and at not one moment did I think I handballed it. I headed it in between my arms,” Williams said.
“If you’re going to pause it, it’s going to look like it hit my arm but it didn’t hit my arm. VAR is there to intervene with clear and obvious errors and that wasn’t clear and obvious. I have seen all the images and at not one moment can you tell that has clearly hit my arms because it never. I knew straight away I’ve headed it down in between my arms. At a loss at that one. Disappointing.”
The controversial intervention added to a growing sense of grievance for the Reds, who also felt aggrieved by a number of other officiating decisions throughout the 90 minutes at the City Ground.
“A lot of decisions didn’t go our way today but this is football. It’s going to be like that. Could have been a penalty. I think there were a few times where we could have an should have had a penalty but this is where the consistency is not there at the minute but the big one for me is the disallowed goal. It’s a goal for me, it didn’t hit my arm so that’s all I can say on that,” Williams added.
The 0-0 stalemate leaves both sides sharing the points, but the post-match discussion will undoubtedly focus heavily on the officiating consistency and the technology used to review close calls.
