Nuno Espirito Santo says Stuart Attwell and other officials do not deserve personal abuse but admits it has been difficult for Nottingham Forest to focus on their fight for survival amid a spate of contentious decisions against them.
Forest saw three penalty appeals waved away during last week’s 2-0 defeat to Everton, having also seen several other controversial calls go against them in recent months.
They reacted furiously on X, with the club’s official account accusing Attwell – who was on VAR duty for the game – of supporting their relegation rivals Luton Town.
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Forest later asked for the VAR audio from the incidents to be released and doubled down on their comments regarding Attwell, saying officials with ties to a team’s “contextual” rivals should not be appointed to their games.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s clash with Manchester City at the City Ground, Nuno said Forest’s complaints had nothing to do with individuals and were the result of pent-up anger.
“We don’t want things to go much further and it becomes personal or abusive to the referees,” the former Wolves and Tottenham boss said.
“Try to understand us and put yourself in our skin. We don’t want things to go much further, we want to keep things focused on the game and on the issues we can control.
“But it’s so many things. It’s not just the recent games. It goes on and on and on and on. That’s why we feel so much anger.”
Looking ahead to #NFOMCI 🎙
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 26, 2024
Nuno admits it has been difficult to get Forest’s players to concentrate on the task at hand, reiterating that they have been on the wrong end of several clear errors.
“I still can’t believe it, as much as I see it, how those decisions went against us,” Nuno said. “I thought it was very clear with the three penalties, they were poor decisions that went against us.
“It’s a big impact, eventually it means points. It means frustration, it means disappointment. We feel like these things are always against us, so it’s affecting us a lot.
“We try to shut out the noise and focus on our tasks, but these things keep happening and disturbing our preparations.
“We know the situation we are in, and that is enough for us to forget about everything and focus on the four games ahead of us. We are fighting for survival, so nothing else matters, but it’s hard.”
