BLUNDERING referee Andy Penn took centre stage as Nottingham Forest suffered their third straight 1-0 defeat away from home.

Penn denied the Reds an obvious penalty in the first half, when Chris Gunter had been brought down, before reducing the visitors to ten men in the final stages when he showed a harsh red card to substitute Garath McCleary.

Forest, who were again not at their best, found themselves fighting to come back from behind after going into half-time 1-0 down.

Billy Sharp, a player Forest tried to sign when Colin Calderwood was manager, did his best to demonstrate what they had missed out on as he repeatedly threatened in the opening exchanges – before finally firing the home side into a 31st-minute lead.

A crisp, rising shot from the striker forced the game's first meaningful save from Lee Camp, plunging to his left to palm around the post in the eighth minute.

And, after he had eluded the attentions of Kelvin Wilson, he sent a second, clever effort, dropping narrowly wide of the post after lobbing over the advancing Camp.

Forest hit back with a flurry of corners that included a Wilson header that was deflected over the bar and another from James Perch that was deflected narrowly wide.

The Reds were left furious when Chris Gunter, surging into the box down the right-hand channel, was hacked down from behind by Mark Wilson for what seemed to be an obvious penalty – only for referee Andy Penn to wave play on.

And salt was only rubbed into the wound when, after James Chambers had looped in a cross from the left, Sharp popped up to flick an intelligent header beyond Camp from ten yards to net his 13th goal of the season and put Doncaster ahead.

Forest almost hit back immediately as Cohen sent Nathan Tyson racing clean through the middle, only for Neil Sullivan to make an outstanding save – before Raddy Majewski bent the loose ball around the post from the edge of the box with the keeper stranded.

Manager Billy Davies was given an additional reason to complain about referee Penn when, on the stroke of half-time, he booked Majewski for dissent when the Pole complained when the match official failed to spot an obvious foul on him.

The scrappy start to the second half was enough to inspire Davies to make an early change, bringing on McCleary for McGugan, who had failed to stamp his influence in the centre.

It meant a change around in midfield, with Cohen taking on a more central role and McCleary positioning himself on the right.

Majewski had an opportunity to claw Forest level from a free-kick 25 yards out in the centre, but the Pole smashed his shot against the defensive wall – and was then quickly replaced himself as David McGoldrick was brought off the bench.

Adebola spurned a golden opportunity after a looping ball from Wilson picked out his run down the centre, only for the striker to prod wide, while substitute McCleary had also fired a rising shot the wrong side of the post.

A superb run that took him through three challenges saw Cohen spark a Forest attack, but McGoldrick drove his shot against fellow substitute Dexter Blackstock.

Forest's hopes of making a comeback were dented when referee Penn conjured up another bizarre decision, this time to show a red card to McCleary.

The winger had slid in with a firm challenge on John Oster, who pulled out of his own tackle at the last minute, leaving McCleary to win the ball.

But Penn – who had made a series of astonishingly bad throw-in decisions against both sides - responded the complaints of the Doncaster players by showing the Forest man a red card.

It left manager Davies holding his head in his hands in disbelief on the touchline as McCleary trudged off the pitch and Forest to chase the game with ten men.