Referee who made 'pointless' Man United red card gesture appointed for Nottingham Forest clash

Darren England will take charge of Manchester United's Premier League trip to Nottingham Forest eight months after his controversial Patrick Dorgu incident last season

The Premier League have confirmed that Darren England will referee Manchester United's Premier League clash against Nottingham Forest, his first fixture including the Reds since he sent Patrick Dorgu off last season.

Dorgu was shown a straight red card in United's 3-2 win over Ipswich Town in February after a high challenge on Omari Hutchinson. The £25million signing got a slight touch on the ball but followed through and caught his opponent late on the top of the shin.

He was initially given a yellow card before England was advised by VAR to review the incident on the pitch-side monitor. After a brief check, the decision was overturned and Dorgu was sent off.

At the time, England was seen explaining the decision before brandishing the red card and former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA referee Keith Hackett admitted that it opened the referee up to backlash.

"The red card issued by Darren England is correct, this is a challenge with excessive force, that endangers the safety of his opponent," he told Football Insider. "Frankly, [when refereeing myself] I monitored the player leaving the field of play without engaging in any discussion, it is easy in the heat of the situation to be accused of saying something.

"You should monitor for sure, but there is no point of explaining why the player is being sent off, it is pretty obvious when you make a challenge with such force.”

This week, the Premier League have announced their match officials appointments for the weekend's action and England will be in charge for United's trip to the City Ground. Scott Ledger and Akil Howson will be his assistants, with Bobby Madley joining the managers in the technical area.

VAR for Saturday's game is Tim Robinson and Paul Howard his assistant.

Here at The Manchester Evening News, we are dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester United coverage and analysis.

Make sure you don't miss out on the latest United news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.

You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day's biggest stories.

Click here to read article