NOTTINGHAM: Nottingham Forest came from a goal and a man down to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw at home to Brentford on Sunday.

The Bees looked set for their first league win in five games after Moussa Niakhate was sent-off and Christian Norgaard headed in the resulting free-kick.

But Forest fought back despite their numerical disadvantage thanks to Nicolas Dominguez’s looping header on his home debut.

A share of the spoils keeps Forest one point ahead of Brentford in 11th and 13th, respectively in the Premier League table.

Steve Cooper’s men nearly got off to a flying start when Taiwo Awoniyi turned home a corner at the back post, but was rightly flagged offside.

Brentford have struggled in the absence of suspended striker Ivan Toney due to breaches of betting regulations.

But the visitors were nearly gifted the opening goal by Forest ‘keeper Matt Turner.

The former Arsenal stopper was caught in possession by Yoane Wissa and bailed out by a goal-line clearance by Willy Boly.

Forest’s luck looked like it had run out when Niakhate was shown a second yellow card for catching Wissa 11 minutes into the second-half.

Norgaard then headed home Mathias Jensen’s cross to put Brentford in front.

The lead lasted just seven minutes, though, as Dominguez headed in Harry Toffolo’s cross.

Forest then saw out 13 minutes of added time to cling on to what could be a vital point in securing another season of Premier League football.

On Saturday, Tottenham Hotspur snatched a controversial 2-1 win Spurs win over Liverpool as refs admit ‘significant human error’ against nine-man Liverpool as Joel Matip’s last-gasp own-goal ended the Reds’ resistance and the visitors had a goal disallowed that the referees’ body admitted should have stood.

Video assistant referee (VAR) officials Darren England and Dan Cook were replaced for two games after the incident.

Liverpool went down to nine men as Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota were sent off in the feisty clash, before an own goal by Joel Matip sealed a stoppage-time win for Spurs.

The Merseyside club thought they had taken the lead in the first half through Luis Diaz who got behind the defence and fired into the bottom corner past goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario. However, the goal was ruled out by the referee for offside.

The referees’ body, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), later admitted it was the wrong decision to disallow Diaz’s effort, blaming human error, and “should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention”.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2023