Steve Cooper says Forest were denied clear penalty in draw at Preston

Posted Wednesday, February 23, 2022 by PA

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper believes his side were denied a clear penalty in their goalless draw against Preston at Deepdale.

In the opening minutes, Keinan Davis saw his claims for a spot-kick waved away by referee Geoff Eltringham after he appeared to be tripped up inside the area.

In the second period, Preston’s Cameron Archer missed two golden opportunities in the space of a couple of minutes which could have given the hosts victory.

Against the run of play, Forest almost sneaked a late winner but nobody was on hand to touch home Djed Spence’s cross.

After the game, Cooper said: “My personal view is that we should have got a penalty.

“I don’t see why he (Davis) goes down. He beats the man, I’ve seen it back on the TV. He’s in the box, he’s a striker, he’s a goalscorer, why would he go down if he’s not fouled?

“We’ve had too many of those this season but it could have been pivotal tonight because the game could have been a lot different if we were 1-0 up.”

The Forest manager admitted his side were not good enough in the second half but was happy to come away with a point.

“We never really got going in the second half, they’ve had two decent chances,” Cooper added.

“I’m satisfied with the point looking at the game, I want to take the positives out of it, we kept a clean sheet and defended a lot of corners really well.

“I’ve just said to the boys we know we can play better, but you know it might end up being a good point.”

The Preston faithful thought on-loan Aston Villa striker Archer had fired them ahead midway through the second-half but he missed the target from close range.

North-End boss Ryan Lowe thought the chance was harder than it looked.

He said: “I’ve told him not to worry about it; it’s not a problem, there’s no blame culture.

“He’s scored a load of goals for us already, he’s going to score even more but I’ve looked at it back actually and it’s harder than you think because the keeper’s spread himself quite well.

“He scores goals like that every day in training, he’s getting in fantastic positions, I don’t mind as long as you’re getting chances.”

Lowe was satisfied to see a reaction after they suffered a 3-2 loss against Reading on Saturday.

He added: “I’d have thought they were more happy with a point than I am but I’m not disappointed with it. I’m happy because of the performance, which was better than it was on Saturday.”