Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo said Nottingham Forest players need to be more alert after Brentford striker Ivan Toney moved the ball to a more favorable spot for a free kick, helping Brentford secure a 3-2 Premier League win.
Santo was left frustrated by Toney’s 19th-minute equalizer, with television replays showing the striker moving the ball from the marked spot before scoring.
Toney’s goal triggered a Brentford fightback in a 3-2 thriller, helping the West London side return to winning ways after five straight league defeats.
Television replays showed Toney moving the ball from its original placing, finding space behind Forest’s defensive wall, without the referee being alerted.
“The situation is clear, there is a ball displacement. I think everybody saw it,” Santo said in a post-match press conference, suggesting that it should have been checked by the referees.
Brentford’s manager Thomas Frank said he had not yet seen replays of the goal and wasn’t sure whether moving the ball from the spot was within the rules.
“I just take the positive… it’s in the back of the net, and he took it very well,” Frank said. “He’s a clever player, what can I say.”
Brentford’s winning goal came in the 68th minute via Neal Maupay and stood after a VAR review for potential handball. Santos said he was convinced it was a handball when they showed the replay in the stadium, but highlighted that there had been a VAR check unlike in the case of the Toney goal.
The result was frustrating, he added, “but we go to Nottingham with our heads high.”
(Reporting by Natalie Grover and Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
