Under-pressure Steve Cooper fumes at penalty in Brighton defeat… but Nottingham Forest boss vows to help ref chief Howard Webb

On the first weekend of Mail Sport’s ‘Stop Abusing Referees’ campaign, Brighton captain Lewis Dunk became the first Premier League player to be shown a straight red card for dissent since Mike Dean sent Lee Cattermole off in 2012. 

Referee Anthony Taylor had initially booked Dunk for dissent when he complained about the decision to award Nottingham Forest a penalty after a lengthy VAR check. Just 12 seconds later, Dunk was given his marching orders for using personally abusive language towards Taylor.

A straight red for dissent results in a two-match ban and unless Brighton launch an appeal, Dunk will miss the games against Chelsea and Brentford.

Roberto De Zerbi refused to comment on Taylor’s performance after he was given a formal warning by the FA after comments earlier this month, when the Italian stated that he does not like ‘80 per cent’ of England’s referees.

After Brighton held on for a first league win since September, he confirmed he would not fine his captain.

‘I don’t like rules. I am not a policeman, I am a coach,’ said De Zerbi.

‘Maybe he made a mistake but we have to accept the referee’s decision. I always accept the referee’s decision.’

Steve Cooper, who is facing the sack unless he picks up a victory in Forest’s forthcoming fixtures, admitted that on the back of the campaign he has considered his own actions but he was still furious at Taylor’s decision to give Brighton a penalty for an apparent foul by Chris Wood on Joao Pedro.

‘Particularly over the international break, I’ve really tried to think about how I can be in the camp of supporting referees and helping the process because it’s clearly having a negative impact on our game,’ said Cooper, whose father Keith officiated in the Premier League. 

‘I’m trying to say to myself, “Let’s not jump on the bandwagon. Let’s try to be rational with our comments”, but then we see that from Anthony (Taylor) who’s one of the top ones (referees) and it’s hard to hold back. To think he’s given that penalty and then missed the one that’s got overturned and that’s caused all the animosity in the stadium.

‘There must be such a lack of confidence when you see someone like Anthony perform like that. What are the younger, less experienced guys going to be like? I will help and I’ll be on the phone to Howard (Webb).

‘We will try to help but we have to stand up for our club as well because we can’t carry on with decisions like that,’ Cooper added.

Forest lost 3-2 for the second game in a row – with Brighton the latest to come out on top