Huddersfield Town supporters will never be able to forgive Nottingham Forest flashpoints: View | OneFootball

Huddersfield Town's play-off loss against Nottingham Forest felt like a real turning point for the former club.

This loss at Wembley back in 2022 was perhaps to be expected, considering how good Forest were under Steve Cooper.

The Reds were at the bottom of the table when Cooper came in, with the club majorly struggling under Chris Hughton.

But Cooper created a feel-good factor at The City Ground and guided Forest to a top-six finish, with the Reds coming into the play-off games as the favourites of many considering how good they had been under the Welshman.

Overcoming Sheffield United in the play-off semis via a penalty shootout, they set up a tie with Huddersfield, who had beaten Luton Town in the last four.

Levi Colwill's own-goal proved to be the difference between the Terriers and Forest at Wembley - and Huddersfield haven't managed to recover since.

Huddersfield Town v Nottingham Forest VAR controversy

With Forest 1-0 up, Huddersfield had to push for an equaliser and in the second half, two penalty incidents went against them.

Jack Colback appeared to trip Harry Toffolo inside the box, but the latter was given a yellow card by Jon Moss instead.

VAR was in operation for this game, but the check was completed and the decision wasn't overturned, much to the amazement of many Huddersfield fans.

Many neutral fans thought it was a penalty too and the feeling was that the Terriers were unlucky not to get a penalty for Max Lowe's challenge on Lewis O'Brien. The spot-kick wasn't given and Forest ended up winning the tie 1-0.

How Nottingham Forest loss proved to be costly for Huddersfield Town

You just have to look at Huddersfield's current situation to see how costly that play-off loss has proved to be.

They have been battling relegation for the past couple of seasons and if it wasn't for Neil Warnock, they would have gone down at the end of last term.

There are a number of reasons why they have declined so much in a short space of time.

Firstly, they lost Carlos Corberan after the final at Wembley and if they had been promoted to the Premier League, you feel he would have carried on.

Corberan is an extremely talented coach, so having him at the helm still would have been a big boost for the West Yorkshire outfit.

They also lost some key players, with the club having no real chance of re-signing Colwill, either permanently or on loan, following their play-off final loss.

Toffolo and O'Brien also left, which was a real blow considering both had been real assets for the Terriers during the 2021/22 campaign.

Again, if Huddersfield had won promotion, Toffolo and O'Brien, who joined Forest, would probably have stayed.

Recruitment in recent times hasn't been brilliant recently - and the appointment of Darren Moore clearly didn't work out - but many things that happened as a direct consequence of the Forest defeat have played their part in the Terriers' downfall.

Huddersfield fans won't be forgiving of the match officials because of that, even if it's nearly two years since that showdown in the English capital.