Nottingham Forest thought they had done enough to earn a draw with Liverpool in Vitor Pereira's first home match in charge but they were hit with a late goal
Brian Dick Reach Football Correspondent
10:07, 23 Feb 2026
Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister (right) scores before the goal is disallowed by VAR for handball
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Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister (right) scores before the goal is disallowed by VAR for handball(Image: PA)
Alexis Mac Allister’s first ‘goal’ in Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest was correctly disallowed – and his ‘second’ correctly allowed.
That’s according to former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher who has given his verdict on the two close calls at the end of Sunday’s dramatic game at the City Ground.
Forest, who dominated the first half, looked as though they had done enough to earn a point until Ola Aina’s clearance hit Mac Allister and ricocheted into the net.
After a VAR review the ‘goal’ was disallowed and while Mac Allister described it as ‘harsh’ in his post-match interview, Gallagher told Sky Sports’ Ref Watch it was the right call.
Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge even went as far as branding the decision 'corrupt' on X.
Gallagher said: “It [the law] was [correctly applied], and you feel for anybody in this situation because he's just gone to block the ball, it strikes his elbow, but it went in.
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“I saw one replay I went, ‘Oh this is going be disallowed on the replay’. I saw immediately it struck his elbow and said ‘There's no doubt it's going to be disallowed’ because the minute the VAR sees that it's going to be handball.
“He is so, so unlucky, but it would be the same with any player, it's not just Mac Allister, any player that does that, it's always going to be disallowed.”
Gallagher went on to defend the law that the ball cannot go into into the goal via any part of the hand or arm.
“I think it was brought in because, a goal was scored at Burnley by the Arsenal centre half, wasn't it? It went in off his arm and everybody said ‘This isn't right, it can't happen’.
“So I think people accept that if it hits your arm or your hand and it goes in the net it'll be disallowed. It's also acceptable, isn't it? We don't want to see goal scored with a hand.”
There was further controversy soon after when Virgil van Dijk’s header was saved by Stefan Ortega but Mac Allister was on hand to bundle home what turned out to be the winner.
Forest felt Hugo Ekitike was in an offside position when the cross came over to van Dijk, indeed former striker Jay Bothroyd felt Ekitke was interferring with the defence – while others complained that it came eight minutes into added time.
Gallagher explained: “I was at pains to explain this to somebody last night who was raging about when it happened, and I said, ‘But Mac Allister's first goal that was disallowed, that's where the time came from, it was a justifiable extension to the added time.”
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“We had this at West Ham in the midweek fixtures, a couple of weeks ago, it's cleared him by so much that he doesn't impact, it's complex, and that that's why I think the assistants and referees when they pool their resources about offside, I think they do a great job because it isn't easy, it's the most technical law of all, isn't it, offside?
“I actually think it's better now, if you think back to when I refereed offside was offside and players like that were always given offside, it was goals disallowed, and people didn't want it, people said ‘Well, are they really impacting?’
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“I think it's a lot better we see more goals, we see more excitement, and, do defenders really get that bothered about it? I don't think so.
“If you look at that, Forest just reset for the game, didn't they? The manager was fuming they had lost a goal at such a late time.”
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