Nottingham Forest drew 1-1 with Crystal Palace as the Reds produced a battling display with 10 men.
The Reds were reduced to 10 shortly before half-time, with Neco Williams dismissed for handling Jefferson Lerma’s goal-bound effort intentionally.
Forest had taken an early lead through Morgan Gibbs-White, who volleyed low underneath Dean Henderson in the fifth minute of the contest.
Ismaila Sarr earned parity at the interval for Palace with a well-taken penalty that left Matz Sels with no chance between the posts.
Sean Dyche was left to rue the decision made by Williams, and after the game, he shared what he’d said to the Welshman and what he thought of the incident.
Photo by David Rogers/Getty ImagesSean Dyche shares what he told Neco Williams
In our opinion, it’s so important not to be too harsh on Williams following this incident, given just how brilliant he’s been for the Reds over a number of months.
With that in mind, Dyche has suggested that he doesn’t need to say too much to Williams, who knows that he’s let his teammates down in the aftermath of this match.
He said in his press conference: “I think it’s an instinctive reaction from Neco. I’m not going to question him on that. I’ve not said much to him at all. It’s one of those things. He’s been terrific here. It’s an instinctive reaction, he threw his head at it, couldn’t reach it, and it touched his hand. We all know the rules.”
Williams will now sit out of the game against Leeds United next weekend and Forest will be hoping to pile the pressure on West Ham ahead of their game with Burnley on Saturday.
Williams will bounce back from this
The defender has been a revelation for Forest since switching to left-back, and ultimately, the player has a lot of credit in the bank.
It’s easy for anyone to say he should have simply let Lerma’s header nestle into the net, and with a level game, Forest would have fancied going on and winning.
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Williams will return to the team for the game against Wolves, which is coming up on the horizon and hopefully, Forest can do the business on Friday without him.
Dyche is right to publicly praise Williams despite his moment of madness and it seems as though the player will be so disappointed with himself after this incident.
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