Nottingham Forest 2 Newcastle 1: Nicklas Bendtner helps hosts past nine-man Toon despite heroics from keeper Karl Darlow

POOR old Karl Darlow saved TWO penalties on his return to Forest – and still ended up on the losing side.

The Newcastle keeper, who left the City Ground for the Toon last season as part of a £7million deal with Jamaal Lascelles, saved first half spot kicks from Nicklas Bendtner and Henri Lansbury.

They were in an action-packed final 12 minutes of the first half which saw the Toon take the lead through Matt Ritchie and get reduced to NINE men with Jonjo Shelvey and Paul Dummett sent off for conceding the penalties.

But Darlow’s resistance was eventually broken after the break as Bendtner scrambled an equaliser and Lascelles scored a late own goal as Forest fought back to seal their third successive win – and condemn Rafa Benitez’s Championship leaders to their third loss in six days.

A dull clash sparked into life in the 33rd minute when Shelvey kicked out at Henri Lansbury in an off-the-ball spat after they tangled on the turf in the Newcastle box.

Ref Stephen Martin, after being alerted to the incident by one of his assistants, pulled play back, awarded Forest a penalty and sent off Shelvey.

The Geordies’ hot-head was already in the dock after being charged with racially abusing Wolves player Roman Saiss during their teams’ clash in September.

Shelvey denies the offence but if found guilty at his hearing on December 19, he is likely to receive a six-match ban.

Add that to the three games he will automatically get for this red card and it could be nearly February before he is allowed to play for the Toon again.

Former Sunderland loanee Bendtner failed to take advantage of the situation initially his resulting penalty was kept out by Darlow’s first spot kick save of the night.

The 2,200 visiting fans were still celebrating that when they thought Ciaran Clark had headed them in front from Ritchie’s free kick – only for the effort to be ruled out for a foul.

But Newcastle did take the lead as the match entered first half stoppage time when the Forest defence failed to deal with Isaac Hayden’s regulation cross in the box and Ritchie lashed home a left-footed shot.

Yet the first half action was far from over as a minute later there was more penalty drama, with Lansbury once again involved.

The former Arsenal trainee, making his 150th appearance for Forest, was adjudged to have been fouled when he went down in the box under a challenge from defender Paul Dummett, who became the second Toon man to receive his marching orders.

This time Lansbury took the kick and fired it the opposite way to Bendtners – but with the same result as Darlow pulled off another splendid penalty stop.

Forest boss Philippe Montanier went for broke against the nine-men, sending on striker Britt Assombalonga for defender Michael Mancienne at the break, while Benitez went 4-1-2-1.

And hosts levelled when Bendtner finally broke Darlow’s resistance with a scrambled goal in the 52nd minute.

The Dane later had a header cleared off the line by Toon defender DeAndre Yedlin before Matty Cash’s 85th minute flick was deflected into his own goal by former Forest kid Lascelles.