Penalty decisions given and not given left Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper frustrated after his side’s 2-2 draw against Brentford.
The Reds went ahead at the City Ground through a brilliant solo effort from Morgan Gibbs-White, but had two penalty appeals turned down in the first half. And their frustration was only compounded when the visitors were awarded a spot-kick shortly before the interval.
After a lengthy VAR stoppage, referee Andre Marriner went to his pitchside monitor to review Dean Henderson coming out to close down Yoane Wissa. The Forest goalkeeper clearly got a hand to the ball first, while contact seemed to be minimal between his glove and the player’s shin, but the decision was given in the Bees’ favour and Bryan Mbeumo converted from 12 yards.
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Another penalty shout was dismissed in the second half when Gibbs-White felt he was tripped, and Wissa then put Brentford in front with 15 minutes to play. It took a last-minute own goal from Zanka to ensure the hosts came away with a point.
“It would have been really, really harsh to walk off the pitch with nothing,” said Cooper. “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. We could have scored before we did and after it.
“I didn’t like us the last 10 minutes of the first half. We made some unforced errors and put Brentford into positions they shouldn’t have been in.
“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.
“There was nothing good about the second goal they scored from our point of view. We were poor defensively. Don’t think I’ll ignore that either, because I won’t.
“But in the end, we’ve kept going. The game has gone the way it has and we’ve managed to get an equaliser, which I don’t feel relieved about or pleased with. I’m just glad the players have got something out the game.”
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