Newcastle United overcome one goal deficit to win 3-1 at The City Ground despite referee's best efforts

At one point it was looking like it was going to be a very frustrating afternoon for Newcastle United as VAR appeared to be switched off and Anthony Taylor was refereeing the game with his eyes closed.

Nottingham Forest's Ryan Yates was lucky to be on the pitch at the end of the game after a series of incidents which could have seen him sent off that were simply ignored by the referee. An elbow on Tino Livramento right before Dan Burn picked up a booking for an honest challenge went unpunished even after allegedly being checked by VAR. A studs up challenge into the thigh of Sean Longstaff went unpunished later on because Longstaff didn't over-react to it. He was eventually booked for holding but then he also kicked the ball away, so should have been booked twice right there.

Not long after the elbow incident, Nottingham Forest were awarded a corner which should have been a goal-kick, that corner resulted in a free-kick which led to Murillo's opening goal.

Newcastle fans were all thinking the same thing - it's going to be one of those days.

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Newcastle had to wait for their rewards for total domination

Eddie Howe switched Anthony Gordon and Joelinton putting an anonymous Gordon back in his more comfortable position. It was still a relatively poor showing for Gordon, though, even when he was moved to the left.

Newcastle United dominated the game, in truth, with Forest seemingly happy to let the Magpies have the ball for them to try and hit us on the break, but Newcastle had other ideas.

Alexander Isak equalised for Newcastle with his fourth goal in four games, but more significantly, it came from a corner. Our first goal from a corner all season. VAR woke up and tried to find a reason to rule it out but there was none. Game on!

Newcastle jump back into the top half of the table

Joelinton, now operating on the right wing, fired Newcastle into the lead on 72 minutes cutting in from the right and curling a delicious left-foot effort beyond Matz Sels.

Substitute Harvey Barnes wrapped things up 11 minutes later with a typical Barnes goal, coming in from the left and slotting home with this right foot. Barnes could have had a second in the dying embers but fired over.

It was a thoroughly entertaining game, ruined by a poor referee who, once again, invoked the ire of both sets of fans at various moments of the game.

Newcastle have now inflicted Nottingham Forest's second defeat of the season and jump up to 8th in the League, just one point behind today's opponents who remain in third. It's a tight one this season.