Brighton & Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest maintained unbeaten starts to the Premier League season with a topsy-turvy 2-2 draw as the visitors finished with 10 men and both managers were shown red cards in a feisty clash on Sunday.
Forest led through Chris Wood’s 13th-minute penalty but hosts Brighton finally sprang to life just before the interval to turn the match on its head with two goals in three minutes.
Jack Hinshelwood powered in a headed equaliser after 42 minutes before Danny Welbeck curled a free kick inside the post.
Forest were rewarded for their efforts though as substitute Ramon Sosa slotted home from close range in the 70th.
Tempers flared when Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White was shown a red card for a robust tackle which earned him a second booking and the managers were also sent from the technical area.
The two clubs have nine points from their opening five games with Brighton in seventh spot and Forest eighth.
“From my point of view from the bench Morgan’s tackle looked like a fair tackle. A strong one but a fair one, not one to hurt anyone,” Forest’s assistant manager Rui Pedro Silva said.
“Of course the referee has a different point of view.”
Forest have been one of the surprise packages in the early weeks of the season with Nuno Espirito Santo’s side underlining their improvement with a victory at Liverpool last weekend.
They disrupted Brighton’s usual rhythm on Sunday and were deservedly ahead when Wood tucked away his spot kick after Carlos Baleba bundled over Callum Hudson-Odoi.
The visitors were in control with Brighton becalmed but everything changed in the final minutes of the half.
Brighton’s first effort on goal earned them an equaliser as Hinshelwood met a cross by Jan Paul van Hecke with a sweetly-timed header to send the ball beyond the dive of Matz Sels.
Forest were rattled and found themselves behind minutes later when Kaoru Mitoma was fouled by Ola Aina outside the area and Welbeck dispatched an unstoppable free kick.
Brighton appeared to be heading into the top four but switched off and Sosa scored his first goal for Forest.
Despite being held the Seagulls are unbeaten in their first five games of a top-flight season for the first time.
“Once you’re in that position, no way we should be dropping points at home,” Hinshelwood said.
Gibbs-White was dismissed for a second booking after racing across the pitch to launch a strong tackle on Joao Pedro, with the midfielder incensed by the decision as was Espirito Santo who was sent off along with Brighton boss Fabian Huerzeler for “unacceptable technical area behaviour” following the incident.
“The tackle on Joao looked like it wasn’t a great tackle. We were upset with it,” Brighton coach Andrew Crofts said.
“Joao took a nasty hit. Hopefully he’s OK. We are bitterly disappointed not to get three points. We created enough chances to win the game. We’re frustrated and maybe tempers were frayed.”
Author: Mujuni Henry
JUNIITV
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