Dunk confirms what he said to referee Taylor after seeing red for dissent
Lewis Dunk has revealed he apologised to Anthony Taylor for his angry outburst immediately after Brighton's 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest last Saturday.
Dunk, 32, was shown the first red card for dissent in the Premier League for 12 years during the Seagulls' victory at The City Ground. In the 73rd minute, the England international was shown a yellow card before receiving a straight red just 12 seconds later.
He will now face a two-match domestic ban for his actions, meaning Dunk will miss Brighton's trip to Chelsea and home game against Brentford. Dunk's next outing will be the Seagulls' clash at home to Burnley on December 9, which is their third match in six days.
It is unknown what exactly Dunk said to Taylor, but the Brighton defender did apologise to the referee in the aftermath of the game. "I spoke to Anthony straight after the game and apologised," Dunk said. "We had a good conversation about it."
"I let the boys down," he added. "That is on me. I am a leader of this football club and it’s not good enough what I did. I have got to learn from that myself and be the role model to the other boys coming through, and that is not how you do it."
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Forest raced into the lead on Trentside thanks to Anthony Elanga's header, before Brighton responded to level through Evan Ferguson's well-taken strike. Joao Pedro then gave Brighton the lead just before half-time, before the Brazilian added his second on 58 minutes to put the Seagulls 3-1 up.
Following Dunk's red card, Morgan Gibbs-White pulled one back from the spot for Forest, but it was too little too late for the home side. It was a vital win for the Seagulls, who moved up to eight with their first Premier League win since September.
Lewis Dunk was sent off for dissent against Nottingham Forest (Getty Images)Brighton backed up that success by beating AEK Athens in the Europa League to book their spot in the knockout phase of the competition. Pedro was the matchwinner for the Seagulls in Greece, and although De Zerbi wasn't best pleased with the performance, he was happy with the result.
The Italian said: "We didn't play well. AEK Athens played better than us. But I think it was the first time in my time in Brighton when we won a game in this way. The first game at the Amex we lost but we played better and I think we deserved something more.
"Today we didn't play in our way. But we played with great character, great soul, great passion. We had the first chance to score with Evan Ferguson in the first half. We suffered too much, we suffered a lot. We knew before the game AEK are a very good team. They have a great coach. I know him very well. I knew the level before the level of difficulty of the game. I was not surprised."
As for Dunk, his impressive form for Brighton has saw him get back into the England fold ahead of next summer's European Championships. "This year has been good for me," Dunk added. "It's down to hard work, giving 100 per cent and believing in yourself."
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