Bizarre reason VAR could not intervene as Nottingham Forest fume at ‘shocking’ Willy Boly red card

Nottingham Forest fans were fuming with referee Rob Jones’ decision to send Willy Boly off but VAR could not intervene.

Boly was shown a second yellow card after less than half an hour on the pitch in controversial circumstances.

The Nottingham Forest star had won the ball cleanly with a slide tackle but referee Jones adjudged the defender to have made an illegal follow-through.

TV replays showed that Boly had made a perfectly good tackle but there was nothing VAR could do.

That is because VAR cannot intervene on second yellow cards.

VAR can only be applied to decisions like goals, straight red cards, offsides, penalties and misidentified players.

Even the official Forest X account was raging, posting at half-time: “Let down badly by awful decisions again, but we go in level.”

And they did not stop there with another post that read: “@BBCSport: “That has to be up there amongst the worst decisions I’ve ever seen on a football pitch.””

Fans were furious with the decision, both in and out of the City Ground.

One fan responded on social media by saying: “Seriously how on earth was Willy Boly given a second yellow card for this challenge.”

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Another wrote: “Just seen the Boly red card… My goodness me what an awful decision.”

And a third said: “One of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen… Embarrassing.”

While this fan put: “That is one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen. This ref is SHOCKING.”

It was not the kind of welcome Nuno Espirito Santo would have wanted as he took charge of his first Forest game.

The former Tottenham and Wolves boss has replaced Steve Cooper in the dugout at Forest.

And it was heartbreak for the Portuguese coach, who saw his side lose in the final minute 3-2.

Dominic Solanke scored his first-ever Premier League hat-trick in a frantic second-half that saw Anthony Elanga and Chris Wood score for Forest.