Brennan Johnson speaks out on ‘spitting’ incident as Nottingham Forest draw 1-1 with Wolves

Despite images which seem to show Podence with his cheeks puffed and Brennan Johnson reacting immediately, VAR did not issue a red card for the Portuguese.

Speaking after the game, Johnson couldn’t recall the incident in full:

"I think it’s just high emotion. I don’t remember it clearly. I don’t want to talk about it too much.

“I saw a motion come from him but they looked at it and it didn’t happen."

In his post-match press conference, Cooper was reluctant to comment on the footage he had seen:

“I’ve spoken to Brennan and I’m not going to add any fuel to the fire.  We have to trust the authorities to deal with it.  We’ll trust that processes will kick in.

This was not the only moment of conflict in the game.

During the first half there was a flashpoint on the side-line between both benches after Wolves felt Adama Traore was brought down in the box and complained to the fourth official in numbers.

The ensuing clash between both sets of staff led to the sending off of Forest assistant head coach Alan Tate and Wolves coach Pablo Sanz.

Steve Cooper commented on the tension between the two sides which has developed since Forest’s Carabao Cup quarter-final victory over Wolves earlier this year and seemed to apportion blame on the Wolves bench for the chaos on the side-lines:

“There’s been a lot of ill discipline on the Wolves touchline since the change of manager.

“I have zero complaints for our staff”, Cooper told the media in his post-match press conference.

Forest remain one point below Wolves in 14^th place and a point above the relegation zone.