Boss Steve Cooper admitted Nottingham Forest almost paid the price for a “huge error” from goalkeeper Brice Samba as they drew 2-2 with Stoke City.
Having taken the lead through Brennan Johnson at the City Ground, the Reds were pegged back when Josh Maja found the net from a corner.
And they then faced an uphill battle when Samba was sent off for a challenge on Phil Jagielka in the 85th minute.
Defender Joe Worrall went in goal and was unable to stop the resulting penalty from Lewis Baker. But substitute Ryan Yates rescued a point for the hosts as he bagged his fourth of the season in stoppage time.
“He knows he’s made a huge error. For all of the mistakes the referee made today, I have no complaints with the red card,” Cooper said of the Samba incident.
“He’s made a mistake, and it’s nearly cost us.
“I thought it was a bit of an average game overall, truth be told. It took both teams a little bit to get going. Maybe it did look like the third of a three-game week.
“But we settled into our mid-block. That wasn’t really the plan, if I’m being honest - we always want to attack games, particularly at home.
“Maybe we didn’t quite have the energy at the start to do that, so we settled into trying to hit Stoke on the count-attack.
“We still got into some really good positions in the first half. Brennan could or should have scored by doing what he does.
“At half-time, we wanted more from the players but also accepted there were certain things we needed to do defensively.
“We scored how we wanted to. It was a brilliant ball from Sam, Max’s cross was excellent and then Brennan finished.
“It was about managing the game out then, and trying to score another, because I really thought the game was there for the taking. I thought Stoke were vulnerable from turnovers.
“We didn’t manage to do that and conceded from a set-piece. Then Brice has his moment, and we had to accept then the best we could really hope for was for a draw.
“We had to take it in the end.”
Worrall immediately stepped up to don the gloves when Samba departed, and earned praise from his manager.
“It was clear Joe was going to be the one to go in goal. To be fair to the lads, they managed that themselves,” Cooper added.
“He did okay with his positioning. He certainly wasn’t going to lack any bravery.
“The last thing I wanted to see was an outfield player going in goal, but if it was going to be anyone, it was going to be him.”
