Rowett accuses Nottingham Forest attacker of trying to con referee
By Danny Wright
Derby County manager Gary Rowett has accused Ben Brereton of making the most of a challenge to try and win Nottingham Forest a penalty when the two sides met on Saturday.
The Forest attacker went down after a challenge by Chris Baird but referee Peter Bankes awarded the home side a corner despite Brereton’s appeals.
Daniel Pinillos scored a dramatic equaliser from the resulting set-piece to earn Mark Warburton a point in a four goal thriller during his first match in charge.
Rowett was also taking charge of his first game since being named as Derby boss in the all-East Midlands clash.
The ex-Birmingham and Burton boss had several issues with the performance of the referee during the game.
“There was a couple of big calls, I felt, for the ref,” said Rowett, as quoted by the Nottingham Post.
“One was the goal which was disallowed early on, which I couldn’t see there was that much wrong with.
“And there was another one late on where – and I can’t blame him, because it’s a local derby and they’re trying anything – Brereton looked to me as though he just tried to buy a cheap penalty. That perhaps should have been a free-kick.”
Brereton has been a revelation at the City Ground since he made his senior debut for the club in January.
The 17-year-old has scored three goals and bagged two assists in his first 10 games as a Forest player.
In Warburton’s first Forest match in charge, Brereton played all 90 minutes of a Forest game for the first time since mid-February.
The point lifted the Reds above Burton into 20th place of the Championship table after the Brewers lost 5-3 to Brentford.
In other Nottingham Forest news, Warburton reportedly set to raid Rangers for this first team regular.
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