A 10-man Nottingham Forest fought back from a goal down to draw with Brentford as Nicolas Dominguez’s first goal earned the hosts a point.
After a tamed first half, the game sparked into life early in the second when Moussa Niakhate was sent off having stood on the heel of Yoane Wissa.
From the resulting free-kick, Brentford captain Christian Norgaard put his side ahead as he powered in a header from Mathias Jensen’s delivery for his first goal of the season.
But the lead only lasted seven minutes before Argentina international Dominguez, who joined Forest in September from Bologna, produced an excellent diving header, with the ball looping over visiting goalkeeper Mark Flekken.
Victory would have moved either side into 10th place, but neither could find a second goal on a rainy day in Nottingham.
Brentford substitute Neal Maupay, on loan from Everton, had a chance to claim a winner, but failed to connect cleanly when inside the penalty area.
The draw meant the Bees have now gone five Premier League games without a win since a 3-0 success at Fulham in the second match of the season.
A Minute Silence for Maddy Cusack:
A minute’s silence was held before the game in memory of Sheffield United women’s midfielder Maddy Cusack, who died at the age of 27 last week. She had played for Nottingham Forest’s academy side earlier in her career.
Bryan Mbeumo headed over for Brentford and Chris Wood nodded wide for Forest, before the visitors had a shot cleared off the line. At the other end Willy Boly glanced a header wide and Maupay had another shot blocked for the Bees.
But Forest boss Steve Cooper, whose side moved up one place to 11th, will be delighted with the commitment from his side, who had to play with a player fewer for more than 40 minutes.
The desire from the hosts was shown near the end when Morgan Gibbs-White produced a goal-saving sliding challenge on Mbeumo, with the Forest midfielder, the coaching staff and fans celebrating as if they had snatched a winning goal.
The entertaining finale was very much in contrast to the first half, where neither side had a shot on target until the third minute of added time.
That was when Vitaly Janelt’s deflected strike was parried by home keeper Matt Turner, before Ibrahim Sangare made a superb block to deny Norgaard as he looked to convert the rebound.
Turner nearly gifted Brentford a goal at the start of the second half with a heavy touch from a backpass.
Wissa managed to slide in on the goalkeeper and steer the ball goalwards only for Boly, excellent throughout, to get back in time to clear off the line.
VAR plays a role:
The fourth official was meant to be Darren England, but he was stood down for the role after being involved as the video assistant referee in the “significant human error” when Liverpool were denied a goal – later shown to be onside – in their 2-1 loss at Tottenham on Saturday.
It was another controversial afternoon for VAR with Michael Oliver’s first intervention coming after only 11 minutes when Taiwo Awoniyi thought he had scored his fourth league goal of the season from close range after Brentford failed to clear a corner from the right.
But, unlike at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, the correct decision was made, with Awoniyi clearly offside and ahead of Wissa when the lines were added on to the video evidence.
It proved to be a busy afternoon for the VAR officials, with the red card and Norgaard’s goal needing to be checked.
Despite both of those decisions going their way and Brentford not judged offside for the goal, the visitors rued a missed opportunity.