Nottingham Forest’s bosses are furious that no action was taken against James Tarkowski for an off-the-ball clash with Dan Ndoye in their Premier League match on Saturday.

The hierarchy believe that in the 11th minute of the game, Tarkowski’s shoulder barge on the Switzerland winger amounted to violent conduct.

Ndoye fell to the ground after he was barged from behind.

The incident wasn’t seen by on-field referee Chris Kavanagh, and the VAR James Bell didn’t think it was worthy of a red card, and so didn’t intervene. Premier League rules dictate the VAR cannot get involved if they think a challenge is worthy of a yellow card.

Forest officials believe that if Tarkowski was sent off that early, when the score was still 1-0, the result could have been different.

Thierno Barry scored his first Everton goal to help his side beat Forest 3-0 eventually at the Hill Dickinson Stadium as the Toffees moved up to fifth place in the Premier League after a fourth win in five.

“On another day, I’m amazed big Tarky gets away with that but he did,” said Sean Dyche after the match. “Not even a yellow card. It’s not a shove if you look at it. Players get yellows and reds now for just touching heads together and it’s a lot more than that.”