Head coach Steve Cooper made his thoughts on referee John Brooks clear after Nottingham Forest’s 2-2 draw with Everton.
The Reds twice had to come from behind to salvage a point against their relegation rivals. But while left with mixed feelings on his team’s performance, Cooper was not happy with that of Brooks.
Demarai Gray had opened the scoring from the penalty spot for Everton, following a foul by Jonjo Shelvey. The hosts quickly responded, but then conceded an Abdoulaye Doucoure header to trail 2-1 at the break.
READ MORE: How the Reds rated against Everton
READ MORE: How the action unfolded at the City Ground
Forest argued there should have been a free-kick in Morgan Gibbs-White’s favour prior to that goal, rather than it going the other way. Nevertheless, the Reds rescued a point thanks to Brennan Johnson’s second of the afternoon.
“I’m disappointed with the ref, I’ll be honest. He had too much impact on the game, and because of the performance there were some defining moments,” Cooper said.
“The key one for me was the decision that ended up with the ball going into the box for the second goal. We should have done better with it, but the ball shouldn’t have gone in there in the first place because it was a foul against Morgan.
“And when (James) Tarkowski gets booked for a foul on (Renan) Lodi - which was fine, yellow card, no problem - he’s blown up when Brennan was in a one-v-one. That cannot happen at this level.
“It’s not good for the ref either, because he’s going to be gutted with that and it will probably be looked at. It was a pity really that things like that affect games.”
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