Nuno Espirito Santo believes the goal scored by Ivan Toney during Brentford’s win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday should not have stood.
The 27-year-old equalised for the Bees at the Gtech Community Stadium by bending his free-kick around the side of the visitor’s wall, but moved the ball from its original spot before striking.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the final whistle, Nuno said: “Just the ball displacement, no?
“The law says that every goal must be checked but they cannot check ball displacement so it’s an issue, it’s another situation that we have to look at but we are in the worst end of it and it’s an important moment because we knew that Brentford were going to react, it was important to keep that situation controlled but the boys did well.
“It’s always tough to take these kind of decisions, like the third goal, they were arguing about the situation, possible handball but the boys work hard.”
On the ball displacement, Brentford manager Thomas Frank couldn’t offer up much of a response. “To be fair I didn’t see that, I don’t know about it. I don’t know what to say to that. It’s a goal and it stands,” he said.
Danilo Oliveira had given Forest an early lead before Toney’s contentious free-kick, but a Ben Mee header put Brentford ahead in the 58th minute.
Chris Wood equalised soon after only for Neal Maupay to immediately hit back with a superb strike from the edge of the box for what was ultimately the winning goal.
The result leaves Forest hovering above the dropzone in 16th place, four points ahead of Luton Town with a possible points deduction looming, but Nuno remained positive about his side’s display.
“The way we played, the way the boys worked, they played well, they worked very very hard,” the Portuguese said.
“We cannot say anything, we scored, we bounced back, we react, it was a good game of football with both teams fighting for it. It’s tough to take but we move forward.”
