Nott’m Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis claims referees cost his club promotion while Luton boss Nathan Jones slams the ‘most stupid rule’.
Last week, Jones hit out at the Premier League ruling which prevents the Hatters from bringing in an emergency loan keeper from a top flight club.
With James Shea suffering a season-ending knee injury against Cardiff City in April, and at the time second choice Harry Isted not having started a first team game for the club, Jones wanted to use the loan market to bring in a replacement stopper ahead of the game with Blackpool, as he did with West Brom’s Alex Palmer recently.
However, with Palmer a number two at the Baggies, a move for the 25-year-old was off the table, meaning Jones had to turn his attentions elsewhere.
Ready to go 💪#LUTBLA | #COYH pic.twitter.com/RA5iWegh4x
— Luton Town FC (@LutonTown) April 23, 2022
Any hopes he had of signing a keeper from a Premier League club were ruled out as the EFL state that top flight clubs are not permitted to send goalkeepers on seven-day emergency loans to the second tier or below.
That meant that Isted had to start his first ever league match as the Hatters drew 1-1 with Blackpool, while youth teamer Jameson Horlick was named on the bench.
Explaining his decision to go with the 24-year-old and not bring in another stopper, Jones said: “We can’t get an emergency keeper, there’s no-one out there, no-one will lend us a keeper, so that wasn’t a decision really.
“If we could have maybe got someone with a bit more pedigree, we might have, but then it came down to it, we’re quite confident with Harry.
“It’s just having one realistic keeper to play and that’s no disrespect to Jameson, he’s not ready yet, but it’s tough and the most stupid rule in history is you can’t take them from Premier League.
“Premier League have got four keepers in their building, two, three of them never play a football game and then this is an opportunity for them to do something, but you aren’t allowed to take them from the Premier League.”
On putting youth team player Horlick on the bench, Jones added: “He’s 19 and no experience whatsoever, but we trusted Harry.
“We trusted what we have and that’s the way we are at the minute.
“We are backs to the wall, we are doing absolutely everything just to keep moving forward, but it’s a tough spot.”
Jones said on Insted’s first start: “He looked assured, but we defend well.
“We’ve got 18 clean sheets, the highest in the league for clean sheets, so we’re a very, very good defensive unit.
“We know that, but we just can’t fathom for everything that’s happening to us at the moment with injuries.”
While the Luton boss slams the ‘most stupid rule in history’, Nott’m Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis claims referees cost his club promotion this week, making a dig at the EFL in the process…
He said that refereeing decisions – and in particular one in Tuesday’s crunch defeat at Bournemouth – has cost the Reds a place in the Premier League.
Forest were denied a first-half penalty after Sam Surridge was felled in the area by Cherries goalkeeper Mark Travers.
Before referee Stuart Attwell could even make the decision, his linesman controversially flagged for offside.
Speaking to BBC Nottingham Sport, Mariankis was “not happy” with the EFL and feels they have “not backed” his side this season before saying side have ‘not been backed’ with a number of other controversial decisions costing them.
The 54-year-old owner added that the club wrote letters to the EFL regarding their complaints “a number of times but nothing happens”.
Forest manager Steve Cooper claimed referee Attwell apologised to him after the match.
Cooper said: “The players are disappointed, of course. And really annoyed with the ref; really annoyed with the referee.
“When the referee has asked to see me and apologised, held his hands up, it doesn’t make it any better. I think he’s tried to soften me up, to be honest, because he knows he and the linesman have made a huge error.
“But it won’t soften me up. These things need to be reported correctly, which we do.
“There’s a lot of annoyance at that. There’s disappointment, but we don’t say too much after games. We’ll get back, reflect and keep going.”
Now they turn their focus on the playoffs in the hope of getting back to where they last were, all the way back in 1999, a 23-year hiatus.
Evangelos Marinakis spoke to Colin Fray after the penalty controversy at Bournemouth last night. Listen here to Colin summing up that conversation #nffc https://t.co/w7QjAhV8pX
— BBC Nottingham Sport (@BBCRNS) May 4, 2022
Never offsides, always a penalty lol. #nffc
Knee hits right, hand hits left 🥴 pic.twitter.com/FdjVWIsrLr
— Nottingham Forest STL (@NFFCSTL) May 4, 2022
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