Nottingham Forest vs Ipswich refereee announced and Nuno Espirito Santo might be quite pleased

Nottingham Forest are going to be back in action on home soil this weekend when Ipswich Town travel to the East Midlands.

Nuno Espirito Santo has some big decisions to make ahead of the weekend.

For the first time during 2024/25, Forest were well beaten at Arsenal and it was a performance that offered a horrid reminder of the previous two seasons.

Forest have endured some rotten referee mistakes this season, with the club heavily fined after a game against Chelsea.

Furthermore, Espirito Santo has served a three-match touchline ban for abusing Anthony Taylor during a 2-2 draw with Brighton.

Ahead of the weekend’s game, the referee has been announced and it’s a somewhat unfamiliar face.

Referee announced for Nottingham Forest vs Ipswich

The man in the middle for this City Ground clash will be Cleveland-based Tony Harrington.

He’s a relatively new referee when it comes to the Premier League and earlier this season he was involved in some controversy as Manchester City played Southampton.

During that game, he showed four yellow cards, with Russell Martin bashing the decision to book Flynn Downes which subsequently led to a ban.

Harrington has refereed six games in the Premier League this season, showing 20 cards and awarding two penalty kicks.

The referee who has come through the EFL ranks took charge of the Blackburn vs Burnley local derby in the Championship this season and showed 10 yellows and one red during that fixture.

Tony Harrington record during Forest games

The referee will take charge of Forest for the second time in the Premier League this weekend.

His first game was the Chelsea fixture last May when the Reds lost 3-2 to ensure some nerves were still jangling going into the final day of the season.

Forest can’t really grumble too much with this appointment and the Reds don’t have a bad record when he’s taken charge of the club’s matches.

Harrington will welcome another crack at a Premier League game and hopefully, nobody is talking about his performance after the game.

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I came ‘very close’ to joining Nottingham Forest in 2017 but now play in the Champions League for Aston Villa

Nottingham Forest almost signed a now recognised Premier League star back in 2017.

Murillo, Nikola Milenkovic, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ola Aina, Anthony Elanga and Elliot Anderson are just a few examples of some brilliant business conducted by Nottingham Forest in recent seasons.

It now looks as if Forest could fetch a record fee for Murillo, with suggestions it would take an offer in excess of Harry Maguire’s record fee as a centre-back of £80 million.

Meanwhile, Milenkovic and Elanga have attracted the attention of Newcastle United, having impressed so much since moving to the City Ground.

Interestingly, it looks as if Forest came very close to pulling off another fantastic signing back in 2017, but were snubbed at the last moment by a now Aston Villa player.

• READ MORE: Nuno Espírito Santo hints at unleashing £4m Nottingham Forest ace who’s played just once

John McGinn came ‘very close’ to joining Nottingham Forest

John McGinn currently plays his football at Aston Villa, the club he decided to join back in 2018 from Hibernian for a fee under £3 million.

It’s safe to say that the small fee paid for his services has more than quadrupled during his time at Villa Park, as he’s one of their more established members now.

After all, he played a big part in them securing Champions League football for this season.