March 14 2004

Iain Dowie

Iain Dowie was left cursing the referee after Palace were denied two "blatant" penalties in their 3-2 defeat at Nottingham Forest.

Dowie felt his side should have had a penalty in each half after Forest's Matthieu Louis-Jean and Michael Dawson seemed to handle in the box.

He said: "I couldn't believe the first one because it was so blatant and the second was nearly as bad. It's disappointing because you can't do anything about it apart from accept the decisions and move on.

"Two decisions in the very early stages of the match that went against us and some poor defending meant we were always chasing the game.

"For their first goal, my lads say the ball was three yards out of play before it was played in. Lady luck certainly didn’t shine on us today."

Forest raced into a two-goal lead after 13 minutes from GARETH WILLIAMS and Andy Reid. Neil Shipperley pulled a goal back for the Eagles but WILLIAMS increased the lead and a goal from Danny Granville was not enough.

Dowie added: "I thought some of our attacking play was excellent compared to some disappointing defending. We didn’t get going for the first ten minutes and that is what cost us.

"We must cut out individual errors if we are to move on, we are letting in two many goals at the moment."