Daniel Feliciano

Sun 5 March 2023 16:45, UK

Everton should have been awarded another penalty after Seamus Coleman had his ankles taken away against Nottingham Forest, says Andy Hinchcliffe.

The Toffees took the lead through a Demarai Gray penalty early on but should have had a second penalty when Coleman got the wrong side of the defender inside the box and was tripped.

VAR looked at the incident and decided not to give a penalty, but while reacting live on commentary for Sky Sports (5 March, 14:24) Hinchcliffe understood why Everton were unhappy about it not being given.

“As he looks to play the cross in does Colback just take his ankles away?” he said. “Or does he actually play the ball?

“Lets have a look at it. I think he does catch Coleman first, and then catch the ball. You can see why Everton aren’t happy.”

Penalty

If this was a game between any of the top six sides at home, against anyone else in the league, that is being given as a penalty all day, every day.

You could even make the case that it would have been given if the referee hadn’t already given a penalty against the home team in this game, because it’s clear as day.

Coleman gets in front of the defender and as he looks to put the ball across the face of the goal, the defender gets his foot in front and Coleman kicks it, but the defender never gets anywhere near the ball so it has to be a foul.

These are the type of decisions at the bottom of the league that can really make or break a season, with points being absolutely vital and goals hard to come by for the team currently.

But it was a much-improved performance overall, and yet again the officials can be looked at when it comes to the final result. Now we need to find some consistency and string some results together to pull away from the bottom.