Nottingham Forest vs Newcastle United. Sky Bet Championship.
The City GroundAttendance21,317.
Saturday 3 December 2016 21:22, UK
Nottingham Forest missed two penalties but still managed to come from behind to beat nine-man Newcastle 2-1 in a chaotic Sky Bet Championship clash on Friday night.
First-half red cards for Jonjo Shelvey and Paul Dummett both resulted in penalties for Forest - either side of Matt Ritchie putting Newcastle in front - but goalkeeper Karl Darlow denied Nicklas Bendtner then Henri Lansbury on his return to the City Ground.
Forest then equalised shortly after the break as Bendtner poked home from close range, before finally finding the winner in the 86th minute after Jamaal Lascelles put through his own net.
Newcastle stay top heading into the rest of the weekend's action, but their two-point lead means that Brighton could go top with victory at Cardiff on Saturday.
It actually started as a rather quiet night at the City Ground, with very little happening in the opening exchanges. That all changed after 33 minutes, though, when Shelvey saw red for an off-the-ball incident after appearing to kick out at Lansbury when the two were grappling on the ground.
His dismissal resulted in a penalty for Forest and the start of a rather remarkable chain of events. Bendtner stepped up to the spot but his unconvincing effort was beaten away by Darlow.
Two minutes later the ball was in the back of the net at the other end, but referee Stephen Martin frustrated Newcastle once again as he ruled that Ciaran Clark had been pulling on the shirt of Matt Mills as he ran in and headed home Ritchie's free-kick.
Newcastle were then furious not to be awarded a penalty after 39 minutes when DeAndre Yedlin's cross clearly struck the arm of Pajtim Kasami in the box, but the deadlock was finally broken on the stroke of half-time, as Ritchie flashed home an unstoppable strike from 12 yards when the ball had ricocheted into his path.
That, however, would not be the final action before the break. Deep into stoppage time Dummett controversially saw red for bundling Lansbury over in the box while last man. The Forest captain got up to take it himself, but he was also denied from the spot as Darlow guessed right again, this time diving to his right to keep it out.
Benitez sent his side out to defend for their lives in the second half, but they could only hold out for seven minutes as Forest found their equaliser. Bendtner made up for his earlier penalty miss as he scrambled home the ball from close range after seeing his initial effort kept out well by Darlow.
Despite their huge numerical disadvantage, Newcastle defended with superb resilience and it took a real moment of misfortune four minutes from the end for their resistance to finally break, as Lascelles, also on his return to Forest, accidentally steered the ball into his own net from point-blank range after a corner had bounced all the way through to him.
For Philippe Montanier's side it's a third victory in a row, and they climb up to 13th in the Championship table, just four points off the play-offs.
Nottingham Forest boss Philippe Montanier:
"It was a crazy game. To see the goalkeeper stop two penalties, the last time I saw that I was playing as a goalkeeper! Then to play 11 against nine was also crazy. When we [were 1-0 down] against this team it was difficult, but we showed great passion in the second half to find the solution. We are happy with the three points.
"My honest view is that I didn't see [the penalty incidents] because I was so far away. But we can't change the decisions of the referee. They're the best team in the Championship with a lot of qualities. We had to be patient and for us it's a good victory."
"Everything was against us. You could see in the game we have a lot of things we can complain about. But I was really surprised with Lansbury. The way he was acting, twice with the penalties and also with Jonjo Shelvey, but maybe he's proud of himself.
"If the referee cannot see that Lansbury was kicking Jonjo before, I will not defend Jonjo as he made a mistake, but [Lansbury] was kicking him before from behind. Sometimes the FA take action also on the players that are over-reacting, so [maybe that will happen here].
"[With Dummett's sending off] it was very clear the No 10 (Lansbury) was waiting for him. So maybe again the FA can analyse this and see the behaviour of the No 10."
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