Brentford boss Thomas Frank accused a member of Nottingham Forest ’s ground staff of disrupting their warm-up and injuring his goalkeeping coach Manu Sotelo in a furious pre-match bust-up.
Frank claimed Sotelo had been left with a mark — understood to be on his ribs — as the two parties raged with each other. Although an initial investigation into the incident conducted by Forest — who have been surprised by Frank’s comments — and video footage is understood to have suggested the melee was started by Bees staff.
The row is believed to have erupted over claims that Brentford had gone over the time limit clubs are given by the Premier League to warm-up in penalty areas before games. Brentford's backroom staff and players had to be separated from Forest's groundsmen before the situation was diffused when referee Andre Marriner stepped in.
Frank said: “It surprised me a little bit, not that I am an experienced Premier League manager, but in all my time in football and especially all my time in the Premier League, I have never, ever, ever seen a groundsman walking around in the middle of our warm-up doing things.
“I don’t know if that is a coincidence, but it just surprised me very much. I have never seen that. I hope they do that every time, against Liverpool and West Ham.” Asked is Sotelo was injured, Frank added: “Yes, he got a mark. Something gave him a mark and I have even got a picture.
“I have a bit of a temper so I am not an angel all of the time and I try to be the best version but my goalkeeping coach is the most down-to-earth guy, there must be something really p****g him off. I just hope everyone is looking into it. There must be cameras.”
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Forest boss Steve Cooper said he was aware an incident had taken place but did not want to comment until he had a better understanding. The FA are aware of the incident and will review Marriner’s report of when they receive it.
Cooper was left furious with Marriner after he awarded Brentford a penalty deep into first-half added time. Bryan Mbeumo stepped up to score the visitors' first goal, with Forest going on to salvage a point at the death.
“It would have been really, really harsh to walk off the pitch with nothing. The first 35 minutes we were excellent - as good as we’ve been, particularly with the ball. We were good for the 1-0 lead. If anything, it should have been more," he said.
“My feeling on the penalties and VAR is, if the one he’s given against us is a penalty, then he has to give four in the game - the one on (Ryan) Yates, the one on (Emmanuel) Dennis and the one on Morgan in the second half.
"There’s frustrations there over if they’ve made the referee look at the screen on the one he’s given against us, then why hasn’t he looked at the screen on the other three? And just because he’s looked at the screen doesn’t mean he has to give a penalty.
We’ve already had a referee here who has stood by a decision. If he’s got to go look at that one, he’s got to go and look at three others. He has to. I am not saying they are penalties, but what I am saying is, if the one he has given is, then the others have to be. If anything, they were more (of a penalty). That will be frustrating."
