FA looking into alleged Daniel Podence spitting incident in Forest-Wolves clash

By Mark Walker, PA

The Football Association is investigating after a VAR check cleared Wolves forward Daniel Podence of spitting during Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest, the PA news agency understands.

Video footage viewed by VAR of Podence appearing to spit at Forest midfielder Brennan Johnson in the closing stages of an ill-tempered Premier League relegation battle proved inconclusive.

Referee Chris Kavanagh took no action, but Brennan claimed in a post-match interview that “some sort of spit came towards my face”.

The incident occurred after Podence’s late equaliser had cancelled out Brennan’s first-half opener for Forest.

A fiery encounter between two sides battling to retain top-flight status had earlier seen Forest assistant Alan Tate and Wolves counterpart Pablo Sanz both sent off after a touchline melee early in the second half.

When Johnson was asked after the match about his exchange with Podence, he told Sky Sports: “I’m not going to allegate him to do anything he didn’t, but I felt like some sort of spit came towards my face.

“The referees have had a look at it and didn’t give a red card, so it’s done now. I’m completely fine with it.

“At the end of the day it’s the VAR team having a look at that, not me. I’ve seen it close up and they’re having a lot of different looks at it.

“Maybe they didn’t see something that I did see, so at the end of the day it wasn’t given as a red card and I just had to get on with the rest of the game.”

Forest manager Steve Cooper said after viewing the video footage that “you have to trust the authorities to deal with it”.

Cooper added: “We’ll trust that the processes will kick in and I don’t want to say any more on that.”

Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui said in his post-match interviews that he had not seen the incident and could not comment until he had watched the video replays.

Earlier in the game, simmering tension boiled over on both benches when a penalty decision went Forest’s way after Adama Traore went tumbling under Felipe’s challenge.

That sparked touchline a melee which resulted in red cards for Tate and Sanz and it appeared ill-feeling between both camps still lingered from the fiery Carabao Cup clash between the two sides in January, which Forest won on penalties.

Wolves were fined £45,000 and Forest £40,000 for failing to control their players after ugly scenes at the end of their quarter-final tie.

Forest’s winless league run was extended to seven matches after Saturday’s stalemate, while Wolves have won only one of their last seven.