When the cost of defeat is so high, why give a match to a referee for his last game? Huddersfield Town certainly seemed to pay the price.
There is perhaps no other game in football in which the margins between victory and defeat are simultaneously as wide and narrow as the EFL Championship play-off final. One slip, one error, one bad officiating call. Any of these might cost a club upwards of £170m in television, prize and other commercial income. The financial gap between the Premier League and the Championship is a yawning chasm, and it all comes down to one match.
And on this occasion, it wasn’t difficult to feel for Huddersfield Town amid the widespread happiness at Forest returning to the Premier League after an absence of 24 years. Some of those narrow margins went against Huddersfield, begging the question of what a penalty-kick is given for, and whether it might even be time to rewrite the rules altogether.
First came the slip, Levi Colwill’s leg looping the ball over his own goalkeeper shortly before half-time for what turned out to be the only goal of the game. And then came the two refereeing decisions. With 17 minutes to play, Jack Colback clipped Harry Toffolo inside the Forest penalty area. After a long inspection, no penalty was given. Just minutes later Max Lowe bundled Lewis O’Brien over, again inside the Forest box. This time, the contact seemed undeniable, but again no penalty was given. Forest held on fairly comfortably to win 1-0, and there can be little doubting how incredible their manager Steve Cooper’s record has been since he took over.
Nottingham Forest supporters have never visited The Emirates Stadium, The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium or The Etihad Stadium for a league match. In fact, Forest are one of the very few clubs with a 100% record at The Etihad. That’s how long it’s been since they were a top-flight club. The last time they met in a league match, Manchester City were still playing at Maine Road. The value of…
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