Daily Mail

Forest hit back at Bees over groundsman row

- By TOM COLLOMOSSE and AADAM PATEL

NOTTINGhAM FOReST are confident their groundsman did nothing wrong in a pre-match row between him and the Brentford goalkeepin­g coach. Forest have expressed surprise at Brentford’s decision to speak publicly about the incident, with Bees manager Thomas Frank saying his coach Manuel Sotelo had ‘got a mark’ after his altercatio­n with the groundsman.

‘In all my time in football and, especially

all my time in the Premier League, I have never seen a groundsman walking around in the middle of our warm-up doing things,’ Frank added. however, Forest believe that if there is any fault, it is on the part of Brentford. The FA will wait for the referee’s report before deciding whether to investigat­e. On the pitch, midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White showed why Forest paid a club record £42.5million to sign him from Wolves in the summer. With such a fee, an added amount of pressure is inevitable given Forest’s poor start to the campaign. And his performanc­e on Saturday was a sign of just why he will be so crucial to their hopes of staying up. While Gibbs-White scored his first goal for the club, it was his all-round performanc­e that caught the eye. he set up Brennan Johnson twice in the first 15 minutes but the forward could not finish. Shortly after, Gibbs-White took matters into his own hands with a wonderful run slaloming past the

Brentford players and unleashing a right-footed strike that ended in the bottom corner, with the help of a deflection. he was central to most of Forest’s attacking play and when it looked like Brentford would snatch all three points on a highly contentiou­s afternoon, it was Gibbs-White who was there in the box in the 96th minute to smash the ball which was blocked by Ben Mee but hit Mathias Jorgensen and crossed the line. Unless Forest get something against Crystal Palace on Saturday, they will go into the World Cup break bottom of the table. But if they — and Gibbs-White — can maintain this level of performanc­e, then they will not go down without a fight. NOTTINGHAM FOREST (4-3-3): Henderson 5; Aurier 5, Cook 5 (Surridge 90min), McKenna 5, Williams 6; Yates 6, Freuler 6 (Lingard 79), Kouyate 6 (O’Brien 66, 5); GIBBS-WHITE 7.5, Johnson 6, Dennis 6 (Awoniyi 79). Scorers: Gibbs-White 20, Jorgensen 90+6 (og). Booked: Yates, Henderson.

Manager: Steve Cooper 7.

BRENTFORD (4-3-3): Raya 7; Roerslev 5, Mee 5, Pinnock 5, Henry 5; Jensen 6 (Ghoddos 86), Janelt 5 (Onyeka 46, 6), Dasilva 6 (Canos 81); Mbuemo 6 (Jorgensen 81), Wissa 7, Lewis-Potter 5 (Damsgaard 59, 6).

Scorers: Mbuemo 45+3, Wissa 75.

Booked: Janelt, Mbuemo.

Manager: Thomas Frank 6.

Referee: Andre Marriner 5.

Attendance: 28,869.

 ?? GETTY IMAGES ?? Row: Sotelo (left) gets irate
GETTY IMAGES Row: Sotelo (left) gets irate

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