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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
George Smith

Roy Keane gives verdict on Harry Maguire penalty incident vs Nottingham Forest

Former midfielder Roy Keane felt Manchester United captain Harry Maguire was fortunate not to concede a penalty during the first half of Sunday's 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.

The centre-back was guilty of allowing the ball to hit his arm inside the penalty area following a 19th-minute corner delivery. Forest were adamant that a penalty should have been awarded by referee Simon Hooper and the incident, quite rightly, went to a VAR check.

However, despite the ball hitting Maguire's arm, the United skipper escaped punishment because he was judged to have had his arm in a natural position when attempting to jump to head the ball clear. Forest were furious with the decision, so much so that boss Steve Cooper, in his post-match interview, described it as a 'really poor error'.

READ MORE: Roy Keane sends blunt message to duo about their United futures

And although Keane insisted the England defender was lucky not to have given Forest a penalty, he believed that he was worthy of a bit of luck going his way following such a difficult time at Old Trafford.

"Harry, do you know what, he probably deserves that little bit of luck," Keane told Sky Sports. "You would feel for him.

"I know they're all up there and battling, and if he does give the penalty he wouldn't be complaining too much, so he’s lucky. The 'keeper has to come and help him anyway."

On the incident, Forest chief Cooper said: "The Harry Maguire one, for me, is a really poor error. The referee should see it and I understand why he hasn't because of the amount of players and the angle, but why VAR hasn't is not right, in my opinion.

"It's another big moment that is going to have scrutiny on VAR and obviously there's been a lot of not positive decisions over the past few weeks. It's not the reason why we lost the game - although it could have been a penalty and a second yellow for Harry Maguire, we could have scored the penalty and gone one up."

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