Steve Cooper and Sean Dyche agree on key figure that impacted Everton vs Nottingham Forest draw

Steve Cooper was disappointed with the performance of referee John Brooks in Nottingham Forest's draw against Everton.

The Toffees remain rooted to the Premier League relegation zone after a 2-2 stalemate at the City Ground.

Everton twice led through a Demarai Gray penalty and an Abdoulaye Doucoure header. But Brennan Johnson twice equalised to ensure the spoils were shared.

Cooper felt that Brooks got several decisions wrong - claiming the free-kick that led to Doucoure's intervention should not have counted as there was a previous foul on Morgan Gibbs-White.

The Forest manager said: “I’m disappointed with the ref, I’ll be honest. He had too much impact on the game, and because of the performance there were some defining moments,

“The key one for me was the decision that ended up with the ball going into the box for the second goal. We should have done better with it, but the ball shouldn’t have gone in there in the first place because it was a foul against Morgan.

“And when (James) Tarkowski gets booked for a foul on (Renan) Lodi - which was fine, yellow card, no problem - he’s blown up when Brennan was in a one-v-one. That cannot happen at this level.

“It’s not good for the ref either, because he’s going to be gutted with that and it will probably be looked at. It was a pity really that things like that affect games.”

Dyche was left baffled why Everton were not awarded a second penalty in the first half when Seamus Coleman appeared to be tripped by Jack Colback.

The Toffees chief said: “Amazed we didn’t get a second penalty, but I don’t know what’s a penalty any more.

“You touch someone on the shoulder and they go down, it’s a penalty. Seamus gets there, puts his foot in front of him, he kicks his foot and it’s not a penalty. I don’t know where that lives.

“I asked the referee and he didn’t think it was a penalty. I said ‘I don’t know what is then’. My way of looking at it is, if someone has broken in front of you, if you touch or are around them, even in my day, it is a penalty.”