Karl Darlow saves TWO penalties against former club Nottingham Forest as Newcastle go down to nine men
Jonjo Shelvey sent off for kicking Henri Lansbury and Paul Dummett clumsily brought down the same man
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KARL DARLOW saved TWO first-half penalties at the City Ground as Newcastle United bid to stay top of the Championship.
Incredibly, Rafa Benitez's nine men lead Nottingham Forest at half-time after the goalkeeper's heroics - Matt Ritchie on target for the visitors.
Newcastle went down to 10 men just after the half hour mark, when Jonjo Shelvey needlessly kicked out at former Arsenal midfielder Henri Lansbury.
The referee appeared to miss the incident initially, but after conferring with his assistant gave former England and Liverpool midfielder Shelvey a straight red.
Lansbury made the most of the contact, writhing around inside the box.
Former Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner stepped up from the spot, but Darlow - who came through Forest's academy - guessed the right way and palmed Bendtner's strike away to his left.
The visitors then took the lead just on half-time.
Paul Dummett surged down the left wing and put in a low cross, but Matt Mills' poor clearance fell to the feet of Ritchie, who stroked the ball into the top corner to make it 1-0.
The drama was not finished, however, when a long ball over the top saw Lansbury through on goal.
The midfielder stopped but Dummett continued and ploughed into him, knocking him over.
Again, the sending off seemed a tad harsh with the contact more accidental than cynical.
This time it was Lansbury who stepped up to try and equalise, but Darlow this time dived to his right to make another brilliant save and keep Rafa Benitez's Championship leaders a goal to the good.
Bendtner made amends for his earlier miss five minutes into the second-half when he somehow managed to poke home after an almighty goalmouth scramble.
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