PNE boss Alex Neil rues 'soft' red card and frustrating decisions at Brentford

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The Lilywhites finished with 10 men after Greg Cunningham saw red for two bookings in the space of 90 seconds.

Although Neil felt both cautions were 'soft' he was more frustrated with Tommy Spurr seeing a first-half goal disallowed for offside and that Bees midfielder Josh McEachran escaped with only a yellow card for bringing down Callum Robinson when through on goal.

Neil said: "I thought it was a hard-fought game between two committed teams.

"There were a couple of areas which we feel aggrieved about, the goal which Tommy Spurr scored and was ruled offside, having seen it back it looks like the furthest full-back has played him onside.

"That was the side the linesman was on so that was disappointing and frustrating.

"Then there was the incident when Callum Robinson nicked the ball and was breaking through on goal when he was fouled.

"The two guys at the side of him couldn't affect the ball, they were on the wrong side.

"I'm not an advocate off getting people sent-off because it ruins the game as it did when we got the red card.

"If ours was a sending-off than that was certainly a sending-off.

"That would have changed the match because we were coming away from home and they would have been down to 10 men.

"I was disappointed with those two elements but I thought my team worked extremely hard.

"In the first half we probably had the best chances but I wouldn't say we were necessarily the best team.

"Second half, they came more into it and the sending-off obviously changed everything.

"We just defended for our lives after that to make sure we got something from the game."

Cunningham got his marching orders in the 75th minute, the first for impeding Bees keeper Daniel Bentley at a goalkick then for a foul on Florain Jozefzoon.

He will miss next Saturday's home game with Wolves because of the resulting one-match suspension.

Neil said: "I thought both of Greg's bookings were soft.

"For the first, Greg ran across the face of the goalkeeper and he sort of falls over - he picks-up his booking.

"His one down the far side, he was grappling with the lad, he went to ground and it was a foul.

"But I don't think every foul is a booking and I thought Simon (Hooper) was very soft in his awardin of free-kicks today.

"Whenever you come to Brentford they are a really good footballing team, they move the ball well and you need to get up against them to stop them playing."