Boss Steve Cooper said referee Stuart Attwell apologised to him for a key decision which went against Nottingham Forest in their defeat to Bournemouth.
Losing 1-0 at the Vitality Stadium ended the Reds’ hopes of clinching automatic promotion, while the Cherries secured their place in the Premier League with the three points. But the visitors were left to rue missed chances, and big calls which didn’t go their way, in the first half.
Sam Surridge hit the bar early on, and then could have had a penalty as half-time neared. Played in by Philip Zinckernagel, the striker looked to take the ball around Mark Travers. He was flagged offside - a decision which looked questionable on replays - and was also felled by the Cherries goalkeeper.
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Cooper said Attwell and the assistant who had raised his flag “held their hands up” afterwards. And it proved costly as Forest were beaten by Kieffer Moore’s goal from a clever free-kick late on.
“The players are disappointed, of course. And really annoyed with the ref; really annoyed with the referee,” the Welshman said.
“When the referee has asked to see me and apologised, held his hands up, it doesn’t make it any better. I think he’s tried to soften me up, to be honest, because he knows he and the linesman have made a huge error.
“But it won’t soften me up. These things need to be reported correctly, which we do.
“There’s a lot of annoyance at that. There’s disappointment, but we don’t say too much after games. We’ll get back, reflect and keep going.”
On the penalty decision, he added: “I sort of said that it could be season-defining. I got the feeling that they wanted to speak to me, to nip it in the bud.
“We know that decisions haven’t really been good for us this year. But I don’t want to moan about that, or I’ll be here forever.
“Second half, we didn’t play as well with the ball, there’s no doubt about that. Defensively, I thought we were okay. They had a couple of moments, but the set-piece ends up being the difference.
“It hurts. But whether we like it or not, we have to get over it and get ready for the play-offs.”
