Forest boss Steve Cooper on collision course with referees after red card fury
Steve Cooper rounded on referee Paul Tierney for a 'lack of football understanding' after Moussa Diakhate's sending-off.
The Nottingham Forest boss was upset with the official over his decision to award a second booking to the left-back 10 minutes into the second half. Diakhate received a yellow card on the half-hour for a crude lunge at Mathias Jensen near Forest's left flank.
But he then caught Yoane Wissa's ankle in another clumsy challenge - and Tierney felt it warranted another caution - leading to the player's dismissal.
Cooper has already had one run-in with officialdom this season - Forest sent a letter of complaint to the referees' body the PGMOL after a controversial afternoon against Manchester United at Old Trafford - and he was clearly upset after the 1-1 draw with Brentford.
"With this being the only Premier League game of the day, the PGMOL needed a real clean day. Unfortunately, they got the opposite. We want to help referees. We’ll moan and complain in games as much as anybody else - that’s the nature of it. We try to do it respectfully, but that’s sometimes hard. But they’ve got to help themselves.
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"I’m annoyed with Moussa’s first yellow card. He shouldn’t have lunged in. It was the right decision and to give away a free-kick in that area against Brentford was something we talked about not doing. It was silly because they are a set-piece team.
"But the second one is... honestly, it wouldn’t have been mentioned if he’d just given a free kick. It was accidental, of course it was. You need know-how. You need football understanding. It’s a contact game.
Nottingham Forest and Brentford shared the points on Sunday (Getty Images)What did you make of Paul Tierney's performance on Sunday? Let us know in the comments below!
"Some decisions have gone for us. Don’t think I’m sitting here saying that we’re hard done by. Some stuff clearly has. In general, we all want refereeing to be at the right level. We want to help them. But they have to help themselves.
"The last thing they needed today was talking points about their decision-making. But that’s what they’ve got. I mean, we sent a letter. It took three weeks for the reply. As I said: ‘Let’s work together’ - and we’ll help. This league is at a level. If you’re asking me about referees, we’ll help as much as we can. But they have got to help themselves."
Cooper added that one way officialdom could help is to offer clarity on what does, and doesn't constitute handball. He said: "I’m not an experienced Premier League manager but I have a view, but someone needed to come out to say what handball is after the Spurs game (vs Arsenal ). I honestly don’t know what is handball and what isn’t.
"They needed to come out last Monday and say what is and what isn’t handball. Then we can hold our hands up and get on with it. It just needs to settle down – we all want referees to do well. My dad was a referee, I get it. We want them to be calm and making good decisions so they can progress with their careers."
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