VAR’s biggest critics had an eight-minute respite due to a fire alarm during Nottingham Forest’s 2-1 win over Tottenham.
The video assistant refereeing system went down at the end of the first half with the visitors two goals to the good at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
SkyAnd there was plenty going on on the touchline[/caption]
A social media post from the Premier League Match Centre on X read: “The match will be operating without VAR until further notice due to a fire alarm at the VAR Hub at Stockley Park.”
John Brooks and assistant Dan Robathan were on duty at the time, as usual off-site in Stockley Park.
They’d earlier had to intervene in the tenth minute when Chris Wood thought he’d scored a second soon after Elliot Anderson’s opener.
However, Wood had just gone too early off the shoulder of Micky van de Ven and the infringement was flagged by the recently introduced semi-automated offside system.
The VAR ratified the call, and Wood later got his goal in the 16th minute.
Yet the half-time fire disruption wasn’t exactly ideal, given that there were a flurry of surprise changes at the break.
Peter Bankes was left solo to start the second half, but it was fourth official Tony Harrington who had the bulk of the work on the touchline.
Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou opted to swap out his centre backs, taking off Van de Ven and Cristian Romero for Kevin Danso and Ben Davies.
Meanwhile, Forest’s Nuno Espirito Santo traded Anthony Elanga for Morato.
There were no major incidents to start the half, and then the Premier League Match Centre offered another update, saying: “VAR is now back up and running”.
SkyLuckily the subs were the only real action[/caption]
Thankfully nothing out of the ordinary happened during the eight minute outage, with the drama in the match reserved for late on.
Spurs pushed to get back into the game and were rewarded in the 87th minute through Richarlison.
But his goal proved to be nothing more than a consolation as Forest held on for a massive 2-1 win that lifts them back into the Premier League’s top three.
Spurs, meanwhile, remain all the way down in 16th, two places from the relegation zone but with a massive 16-point buffer.
Focus is clearly on the Europa League for Spurs, who face Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt over two legs in the semi-finals as they chase their first trophy since 2008.
Taking the positives ahead of the first leg in London on May 1, Postecoglou told talkSPORT: “Our football after [conceding the goals] was outstanding.
“I think even with that start we deserved to win the game with the way we played and the opportunities we had but it doesn’t deny that we did lose another game of football.
“On the balance of play we should’ve won that game, things aren’t falling our way in front of goal, but the overwhelming feeling for me is disappointment about another loss.”
