IT’S NO-NO Santo’s nightmare as returning ESPIRITO
NUNO ESPIRITO SANTO must have been wondering, ‘What have I done to deserve a week like this’, standing on the touchline shaking his head.
It began with Forest being told they face a possible points deduction, along with Everton, for breaking Premier League spending rules.
Now he was reacting to Neal Maupay’s goal giving Brentford a first league win in six games, when he believed it should have been ruled out for handball.
Assistant Rui Pedro Silva was booked for his complaints.
Forest felt they were robbed of a precious point, while dealing with the threat of much bigger and costlier deductions.
With 11 missing through injury or on Africa Cup of Nations duty, the last thing Forest needed was to be facing a side fired up by the return of Ivan Toney from his eight-month betting ban.
But for the opening 15 minutes it looked as if Santo’s patched-up side were the ones welcoming a big-name back rather than missing Morgan Gibbs-white, Anthony Elanga and last season’s leading scorer Taiwo Awoniyi.
They came out of the blocks hard and ready to play party-poopers.
Danilo silenced the Gtech Stadium with a stunning 25-yard volley after three minutes.
Mads Roerslev and Ben Mee produced a couple of Sunday League-type clearances before Danilo delivered a touch of class.
He brought the ball down on his knee before hitting an unstoppable right-foot effort that Bees keeper Mark Flekken could only watch fly into the goal.
All the noise heralding Toney’s return was coming from the away end... and none of it supportive.
“You should have cashed out,” they sang, until the Brentford striker cashed in on Matt Turner’s abysmally built wall.
Toney levelled with a 19thminute free-kick on the edge of the box around the outside of the wall and inside Turner’s left-hand post.
He celebrated by running to the dugout and pulled out a shirt saying: “Thank You, Uncle Brian.”
It was almost a carbon copy of his last Premier League goal – against Forest – in his final home game before his eight-month betting ban kicked in.
And his strike finally brought the home fans to life.
The Bees’ second arrived when Mee ran across the front of Murilo to head in Mikkel
Damsgaard’s 58th-minute corner. The former Burnley man must have been dreaming about being the matchwinner when caught ball-watching as his former Clarets team-mate Chris Wood rose to head in Callum Hudsonodoi’s cross seven minutes later.
The honour of delivering the Bees a much-needed win fell to Maupay who collected Roerslev’s cross with his back to goal and span and angled a left-foot drive into the bottom right corner.
VAR checked for the handball and ruled in Maupay’s favour.
Santo will hope the financial rulemakers give him a break as Forest need every point.