Nottingham Forest were unable to extend their unbeaten run to two games after falling to a 1-0 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
Ruben Neves' penalty kick was enough to separate the two sides after Brennan Johnson was denied from the spot soon after by Jose Sa. Both sides were in dire need of picking up a positive result heading into the encounter, sitting in the bottom three of the Premier League table.
And the crucial three points for managerless Wolves has now seen them move out of the drop zone after sealing just their second win of the season. Forest, meanwhile, have a lot more to do, starting with another tricky away trip, this time to Brighton, on Tuesday (7.30pm kick-off).
READ MORE: Wolves 1 Forest 0 - Reds beaten as VAR in the spotlight
READ MORE: Ruben Neves mocks Forest as Wolves group chat message revealed
This is what the national media made of the result and the Forest performance at Molineux...
The Telegraph, Ian Whittell
Two teams with major shortcomings in front of goal, predictably, required VAR and penalties to try and score although, in the case of Nottingham Forest, not even that gift was sufficient.
Visiting manager Steve Cooper bemoaned the performance of referee Thomas Bramall, who required VAR checks and two trips to his sideline monitor, totalling eight minutes, to award a pair of second half spot kicks.
But, as his team slumped to the foot of the table, thanks to Ruben Neves’ successful conversion and Jose Sa’s superb save from Brennan Johnson’s attempt, Cooper was also honest enough to admit his side did not deserve a point.
"We know the referee well from last year, particularly when you get him at home. So, I’d better leave that there," said Cooper.
The incident that caused Cooper such angst came from Ruben Neves’ controversial 56th minute penalty, awarded after Adama Traore’s shot was blocked by Harry Toffolo, with the ball taking a touch off his trailing arm.
Daily Mail, Rob Draper
Modern football, where to start? It felt like we had it all at Molineux.
A Twitter row, sparked by Nottingham Forest’s social media team, followed by an interminable amount of standing around in the second half as we waited for VAR decisions.
It wasn’t like this in Brian Clough’s day. You wanted to know what he would have made of it all and suspected the reply might have been concise, to the point and unprintable. Then again, he might have said the same about Forest here.
Their big VAR chance came on 75 minutes, when Matheus Nunes wrestled with Ryan Yates. It was the kind of tussle that was normal (yet still illegal) in the pre VAR world; you wonder why players persist post VAR, when they know this kind of behaviour will be forensically examined.
What can be said of Forest, owned by media mogul Evangelos Marinakis, and who sacked the head of recruitment and head scout last week, after signing 22 players in the summer? After 23 years out of the Premier League, the transition back has been so traumatic that someone had to be sacked and it wasn’t going to be Marinakis. It might have been Cooper, the man asked to mould the spending spree on a teenager on Football Manager into a coherent football unit but he got a year’s extension rather, which is seemingly the new ‘vote of confidence.’
The Guardian, Pete Lansley
Forest, who had won on three of their previous five visits to Molineux, looked content to bank up and play on the counterattack. They also had a VAR check for a possible penalty when Neco Williams’s shot struck Toti on the arm.
Playing with a broken wrist, Jose Sa's outstanding late save from Brennan Johnson’s penalty followed Rúben Neves’s successful spot-kick to earn managerless Wolves a ladder out of the relegation zone. The Portuguese goalkeeper, who also salvaged a point against Fulham in August when saving Aleksandar Mitrovic’s penalty, dived to repel Johnson’s effort in the 79th minute to deepen Forest’s struggles in a derby dominated by four equally shared VAR calls.
"We knew the referee well from last year in the Championship," said the Forest head coach, Steve Cooper. “We know the differences of what you can get from him. That was part of what we had to deal with today."
Aside from Morgan Gibbs-White curling over a couple of long-range efforts against his former club, most of the second half revolved around VAR calls: Cooper was told the ball was only in play for 18 minutes and included a nervous eight added minutes.
Matheus was censured for pulling over Ryan Yates but from the ensuing penalty, Sá dived to his left to produce a superb save from Johnson’s penalty kick. Wolves may have won the social-media jousting but the three points.
The Sun, Graeme Bryce
Jose Sa went one better as he hurled himself to his left to keep out Brennan Johnson's penalty, 11 minutes from the end to make sure his side seized all three points. And Wolves fans rubbed it in as they taunted Forest with chants of: 'One hand, he's only got one hand!'
Earlier Ruben Neves had scored from the opposite spot after a VAR check spotted Adama Traore's shot had struck Harry Toffolo's arm. Ref Thomas Bramall was urged to judge for himself on the pitchside monitor and to Steve Cooper's fury, he awarded Wolves the penalty.
It was also enough to ease them out of the relegation zone after Leicester City's goalless draw with Crystal Palace earlier in the day. Forest meanwhile will kick themselves for fluffing their big chance near the end.
Morgan Gibbs-White's corner skimmed off Diego Costa's head and seemed to catch Adama Traore's arm. However the real offence had taken place deep in the box as Matheus Nunes recklessly wrestled Ryan Yates to the ground.
Again VAR intervened and ref Bramall awarded the penalty after watching a rerun of the incident. However Sa produced his heroics to ensure Wolves clocked up their second win of the season thanks to his 'handy,' intervention!
Sky Sports, Declan Olley
Managerless Wolves were awarded a penalty in the 55th minute after a lengthy VAR review saw referee Thomas Bramall point to the spot for Harry Toffolo's handball from Adama Traore's shot.
The away side were then given the chance to equalise 20 minutes later when another VAR review saw referee Bramall penalise Matheus Nunes for pulling back Ryan Yates at a corner.
But goalkeeper Sa, who has been playing with a broken wrist since the second game of the season, stood firm to deny Johnson.
Forest meanwhile sit bottom of the table and are without a league win since mid-August.
BBC Sport, Simon Stone
A meeting between a side that had only scored three goals this season and one that had taken a single point from seven games was never destined to be a classic.
Forest handed Steve Cooper a new three-year contract after their four-goal hammering at Leicester a fortnight ago. Without it, his tenure would be extremely precarious now.
He was visibly frustrated at Wolves' penalty, particularly as the game had moved to the other end of the pitch and the hosts were preparing to take a corner when [fourth official Lee] Mason alerted [referee Thomas] Bramall to Nunes' infringement.
Cooper could only watch in despair as Johnson wasted the opportunity to level. The worry for Forest is not so much that Cooper is yet to find his best team, more that the options at his disposal are not good enough.
Morgan Gibbs-White’s ineffectiveness delighted one set of supporters and frustrated the other. Forest are in big trouble.
How did you rate Forest's performance out of 10? Tell us in the comment section
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