Alan Irvine was left disappointed to leave the City Ground empty handed on Saturday evening after falling to a 2-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest.

A penalty incorrectly awarded to Forest after Darren Purse tried to avoid Dexter Blackstock's first half shot saw the home side go 1-0 up against the run of play and Irvine was gravely disappointed to be on the end of referee, Trevor Kettle's wrong decision to give a spot kick.

"There was only man who thought that was a penalty and unfortunately it was given," Irvine told press after the match. "I have watched the incident again and the ball hit Darren Purse on the back. But even with the ones that do strike players' arms in those circumstances you're never quite sure what is going to be given; often it isn't a penalty and sometimes it is a penalty. I really wish that could be cleared up once and for all.

Irvine had been encouraged by his team's performance at Forest, as the Owls were on top for long spells of the game. Wednesday equalised through Luke Varney inside the last 20 minutes of the game but Blackstock pounced from a set piece to score his second of the match and secure all three points five minutes later.

"I thought that for ten or 15 minutes after conceding the penalty it did affect us a bit," Irvine admitted. "We got a little bit wrapped up in contesting every decision the referee made at that point but we got our concentration and our focus back at half time. We talked about a few things that were important tactically and I thought we were in the ascendency in the second half.

"I have been here a number of times and Forest have been terrific here. I thought we gave them a lot more problems than I have seen any other team give them this season so I was pleased about that.

"I felt we thoroughly deserved something from the game. I am not saying we deserved to win but I thought we might win having got to 1-1 because we were on the front foot at the time. I don't know if Lee Grant actually had a save to make in the second half other than conceding the goal."

Irvine added: "When you put into context how good Forest are I thought it was a very good performance. They are a really good team and I think Billy has got them playing very well. I think they will have an excellent chance of getting automatic promotion. Taking all that into consideration I think our lads did very well to have them on the back foot as much as we did."

The Owls boss, who was named as the Coca-Cola Championship's Manager of the Month just before kick-off, will now be focussing on his players' recovery and quickly switching his attentions to Tuesday evening's encounter with Blackpool at Hillsborough.

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