Brentford manager Thomas Frank questioned the way referee James Linington and his assistants dealt with the controversial moment in his side’s 1-1 draw at Watford that saw the Hornets awarded a penalty and Ethan Pinnock sent off.
Frank lost his cool when Mads Bech Sorensen was mistakenly shown a red card and remained in a bad temper when Pinnock was eventually identified as the culprit and given his marching orders.
Troy Deeney eventually converted a spot-kick Frank was convinced was debatable in itself and certainly should not have resulted in a red card.
He said: “It was one of those situations where you could ref a penalty, I will go that far, but it is not one of those situations where it was 100 per cent a pen. I would like to see that in a VAR room and see what they say but I understand why it could be reffed.
“That was not the thing that made me be passionate, that was the red card. I know a ref can give a triple penalty but for me you can’t do that in that situation.
“I don’t know if they were in doubt or stressed or whatever but they managed to give Mads Bech the red card first – four refs together managed to give the wrong player the red card. That is why I am in doubt whether they managed to nail that situation.
“I know it is not an easy job out there but it was a very decisive situation.”
Brentford equalised through a penalty of their own three minutes later through Ivan Toney after Mathias Jensen’s shot had hit Christian Kabasele’s raised arms.
The officials then combined late on to disallow a Watford goal from Stipe Perica where the substitute appeared to have been level with the last defender.
That annoyed Watford manager Vladimir Ivic, who had also had a heated exchange of words with Frank, but the Serbian admitted his side should have made better use of their extra man.
He said: “We should have won this game because we had a man more. If we speak about the first 45 minutes we must be realistic – Brentford controlled the game and maybe deserved something more.
“In the second 45 minutes we scored but not for the first time we have conceded immediately after. We have spoken about that a lot of times. We cannot be satisfied with a point in the circumstances.”
Ivic added: “From my view I believe they were both penalties.
“But with Stipe Perica it was a clear goal – there was no chance he was offside. When I came back into the dressing room I saw exactly the moment of the cross and the position of the striker and the defensive player, there was no question about it. For sure I am frustrated.”
