Stoke manager Gary Rowett believes it was a “big mistake” not to send off Costel Pantilimon as they played out a goalless draw with Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
Rowett was frustrated that the Forest keeper was not shown a red card following a challenge on Benik Afobe after the Romanian had raced out of his box to slide in at the striker’s feet.
There did not seem to be much in the way of contact, but Rowett felt referee Oliver Langford’s decision to wave play on rather than award a free-kick and give Pantilimon his marching orders was the wrong one.
“The reality is that it is a moment that changes the game,” said Rowett.
“If the officials see the right decision it has to be a straight red. There can be no other decision because there was no other player around.
“He knocked it around the keeper and jumped to avoid the contact. He hasn’t dived.
“Maybe he should have dived because that is the problem now. You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
“He jumped but the keeper caught him. He tried to avoid it but there was contact.
“All I said to the referee is that you have to focus on the contact, not on what our striker does. But the referee is human.
“In my opinion he has made a big mistake and it could have changed the game. He has not done it intentionally but unfortunately it happened.
“If you make a mistake as a manager, you get punished. If you make a mistake as a referee, that is it.
“It was the wrong decision. We still had chances to win it but that was a big moment.”
Stoke keeper Jack Butland was also in the spotlight after making a string of saves to keep Forest at bay – most notably in the final stages when he conjured up outstanding stops to deny Joe Lolley and Lewis Grabban.
Forest boss Aitor Karanka was disappointed to see his team denied three points, but was satisfied with the performance from his players.
“He (Butland) made a couple of really good saves,” said Karanka.
“People can be proud of this team because if you look at the Stoke team and squad, they were mostly all Premier League players last season.
“Against a very good team – starting with the keeper – we showed that we were better than them.
“Today is the kind of game that, if you cannot win it, avoiding defeat is not a bad thing. The performance has been really good.
“In the first half I do not know if we had too much respect for them, with their Premier League players.
“But at half-time I told the players that we had to play our way, that we had to be brave and want the three points, and the second half was much better.
“I do not want to say that we were not brave. But we were not confident enough, we were more concerned with them.
“But we were much better in the second half and they have an international quality keeper in Butland.
“It was good for us to compete against the kind of teams we have in recent weeks. We will keep growing and improving.”
