Gary Neville slams 'nonsense' reaction to Darwin Nunez goal against Nottingham Forest

Gary Neville believes the reaction to the referee error which preceded Liverpool’s winner against Nottingham Forest at the weekend is “pushing the boundaries”. 

Paul Tierney, the matchday official for the Premier League match at the City Ground on Saturday, gave the ball back to Liverpool in injury time following a pause in play in order for Ibrahima Konate to receive treatment for a head injury. 

Forest were in possession when play stopped and, as such, should have been the team to receive possession from an uncontested drop-ball. 

Nearly two minutes passed after that incident before Liverpool scored when Darwin Nunez nodded home a 99th-minute winner, provoking elation for the visitors and a furious reaction from Forest. 

Former Premier League referees Mike Dean and Mark Clattenburg - who works as a referee analyst for Forest - have criticised their ex-colleague Tierney for his performance, with Dean calling it a monumental error. 

"I saw Mike Dean's interview earlier today, where he described it as a 'monumental error’, Former Manchester United defender turned pundit Neville said on the Gary Neville Podcast. "There is no doubt the Nottingham Forest player is in possession but the goal came a minute and 50 [seconds] after that. Two minutes in football is an absolute age. 

"The idea that it was a 'monumental error'... I get the fact it was a mistake, a frustration, but I get the feeling now that we're making too much out of what I feel is a run-of-the-mill error. 

"You see them quite regularly in a season." 

Neville hits out at over-the-top reactions

Fans made their feelings known at the time while the club’s chairman, Evangelos Marinakis, even approached pitch-side to protest the decision to give the ball back to Liverpool. 

The Former Manchester United right back agrees that Tierney made a mistake but stated that the overall reaction has been over the top. 

"The owner on the pitch and the Mark Clattenburg nonsense, I can't buy into," Neville said.

"I feel we are pushing the boundaries, and inciting anger and hate towards referees [with] some of the action clubs are taking. 

"To me, it's an error. It's just a mistake. We don't know Liverpool wouldn't have scored anyway. 

"At the moment, we need to show a bit of restraint. I don't feel it's as bad as we're making out."

"Clattenburg is all over the radio - what do they want? A replay of the match? Clubs don't seem to accept there are times where you get a bad decision against you. 

"The angle this season is that there almost needs to be retribution or revenge, greater action, rather than just thinking 'you're going to get a shocker against you at some point'. That's football. 

"I didn't even think that decision was a shocker. It was bad, not a shocker."