Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper slams 'really poor' penalty decision in Manchester United defeat

Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper has lamented the decision not to hand his side a penalty for an alleged handball by Harry Maguire in Sunday's 2-0 defeat to Manchester United.

The Reds enjoyed a dominant win over Forest at the City Ground thanks to goals from Antony and Diogo Dalot. Erik ten Hag's side created countless chances at 1-0 up, with Forest unable to register a single shot on target in the 90 minutes.

But things may have worked out differently had the home side been given a penalty when Maguire, challenging to head clear a corner with two of his own players, saw the ball drop onto his elevated arm. Referee Simon Hooper did not award a spot-kick, with VAR official Andy Madley not deeming it obvious enough for a review.

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"The Harry Maguire one, for me, is a really poor error," Cooper told Sky Sports after the final whistle. "The referee should see it and I understand why he hasn’t because of the amount of players and the angle, but why VAR haven’t is not right in my opinion.

"It’s another big moment that is going to have scrutiny on VAR and obviously there’s been a lot of not positive decisions over the past few weeks. It’s not the reason why we lost the game - although it could have been a penalty and a second yellow for Harry Maguire, we could have scored the penalty and gone one up.

"I’m not going to sit here and say it’s the reason why we didn’t win today but it does [have a big impact] to be fair, I’m biting my tongue here because I don’t want to use this as why we’re in the league position we’re in and why we’ve lost the game - it’s not - but for me it’s a bad error.

"I get it, the referee, but how Andy Madley hasn’t seen it, it needs a real