'I'm very polite' - Nottingham Forest boss highlights contentious decision v Newcastle United

Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo felt his side were denied a penalty in their 3-2 defeat to Newcastle United.

A Bruno Guimaraes brace and a goal from Fabian Schar cancelled out Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi's strikes as the Magpies moved up to seventh in the Premier League table.

Guimaraes put United ahead when a short corner routine was volleyed home by the Brazilian at the back post. Elanga then equalised when he got in between Dan Burn and Sven Botman to poke the ball under Martin Dubravka.

Schar restored the visitors' advantage but Forest again drew level in the sixth minute of first-half stoppage time when Hudson-Odoi's shot deflected off Lewis Miley.

Guimaraes netted his second and Newcastle's third in the 66th and that proved to be the winner. But Espirito Santo felt the visitors were fortunate to lead 3-2 after Taiwo Awoniyi saw a penalty turned down moments before. The striker latched onto a long ball forward from Matz Sels and went to ground under a challenge by Dubravka. VAR looked at it but stuck with referee Anthony Taylor's on-field decision.

Asked about the incident, Espirito Santo replied: "It's hard - I'm very polite in these situations. I don't like to interfere too much but when VAR have time to see and check it over and over again they don't see what I see. It happens, let's move on.

"More important for me is to try and look how we play. We did well, we created a lot of situations. Controlling the game in the second half, playing good. We have to be focussed and look at details."

On the game itself, the Forest manager added: "Good performance, we did a lot of things good. Some things bad that really cost us. We didn't defend well the corner for the third goal but overall we played good. The boys fight and we had chances to make a difference.

"Final decision was good, we had one v ones with the goalkeeper. We are finding the right space but we need to improve on the finishing. We've been working very hard, the boys are committed. It's about trying to convert results from spells of good football. And we have to improve defensively."