Furious Sean Dyche risks FA rap after blasting 'unacceptable' referee

Sean Dyche could be in hot water with the FA after branding the refereeing performance of Rob Jones 'unacceptable' after Nottingham Forest lost against Manchester City.

The Forest boss was incensed by the decision not to overturn Rayan Cherki's 83rd-minute winner, claiming that Morgan Gibbs-White was impeded by Nico O'Reilly in the build-up.

Dyche – who has lost 18 of his 20 meetings with Pep Guardiola – also claimed that City were guilty of unfair gamesmanship, pinpointing Ruben Dias but confusing the Portuguese with team-mate Josko Gvardiol.

'Everyone can see it, there's plenty of people here, there's TV cameras here - everyone can see their performance today,' Dyche fumed. 'Miles off it. It's unacceptable in my opinion, because it affects the game massively.

'The goal: Morgan Gibbs-White, he's pushed to the floor. And then the same player tries to get up to block it, and it goes through his body because he can't get in position to block it.

'When I was a player, if you kicked the ball away you got booked. He (Gvardiol) does it, then falls on the floor injured, apparently. Nothing happens. I just find it bizarre. These are easy things to referee.'

Forest have history with Jones, lodging an official complaint against the referee after sending off Willy Boly in a game two years ago.

Dyche added: 'It was such an easy game to referee, in my opinion, such an easy decision for VAR. I can't work out where football is with that sometimes. I'm a big fan of VAR but I can't work how you can't get that right.

'I'm scratching my head now, I can't believe it; I've just looked back at some of the incidents. I just can't believe what I'm watching.

'I'm a big fan of referees, I think they have a really hard job, and they mostly do it really well. But then I get in trouble. How am I getting in trouble? Look at the footage.'

Meanwhile, Guardiola believes City showed the mark of champions by overcoming Forest in a game that could have gone either way.

'We needed the right mentality,' Guardiola said. 'In this type of game it's more important how you suffer, how you defend, accept you're not good and can be better. Be in the game. Otherwise there is no chance. Last season that game is lost 10 times out of 10.

'I know the memory can be weak but when we won (any) of the six leagues this type of game helps a lot. It's three points but a massive three points.'