Brighton 2-2 Nottingham Forest: Morgan Gibbs-White is sent off during entertaining draw as both teams maintain their unbeaten starts

Four goals, three red cards and barely a moment to catch your breath. There is only one place to start when telling the story of this action-packed draw.

It was late in the second half, with the scores already at 2-2, when Nottingham Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White slid hard forward to stop Joao Pedro, who had led a Brighton counter-attack.

A tough challenge, no doubt. One that was on the side of recklessness, but in that tricky grey area because Gibbs-White appeared to have won the ball. Not least in the eyes of the man who mattered most, referee Robert Jones, who even seemed to indicate that he believed the Forest man had won the ball by drawing a circular shape in the air with his hands.

By this point, both sets of coaching staff had already been roused from their seats. Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler, aware that Gibbs-White had already been booked, called for a red card.

Nuno Espirito Santo, his opponent, could not believe that a foul had even been committed.

Then, more than 30 seconds after the pandemonium had broken out, there was a clear change of heart from Jones, who reached into his shirt pocket to show Gibbs-White his second yellow card, then a red one. He wasn’t done yet, and brandished the same red card in the direction of both managers.

Gibbs-White didn’t go quietly. Instead, he shouted and waved his finger in the face of fourth official Anthony Taylor. So much for Taylor, who was taken out of the firing line after the horrific abuse he endured after showing a record number of cards during last weekend’s Bournemouth v Chelsea match.

Espirito Santo was furious and also showed his feelings.

Neither side was drawn into a post-match discussion, with Espirito Santo’s assistant Rui Pedro Silva insisting nothing inappropriate was said to Jones.

“I will always give my opinion from the bench’s point of view. In the first moment. I thought it was a fair tackle, a good tackle but a fair tackle. I didn’t see anything there that warranted a second yellow card,” said Silva, who also received a yellow card.

‘I didn’t hear anything from Nuno that would justify a red card. Of course it’s very emotional, you’re going to defend your player and your team. But saying something that goes against the referee, no, I didn’t hear anything from Nuno that would justify a red card.’

Brighton assistant Andrew Crofts employed a similar approach with a flat bat.

He said: ‘Their player absolutely doesn’t want to hurt Joao, nothing like that, but it’s clearly a foul. Their bench doesn’t think it’s a foul, we do and then the referee has to make a decision.’

It is a great shame that Gibbs-White’s dismissal overshadows an extremely entertaining match, which started promisingly for the visitors.

Carlos Baleba is often the one who sets the tone in Brighton’s engine room, but here he did it for all the wrong reasons.

Gibbs-White, wearing the captain’s armband in place of Ryan Yates, burst down the right and played a pass for Callum Hudson-Odoi, the ball squirming under Pervis Estupinan and into yards of space inside the Brighton box.

Hudson-Odoi was sharper on the ball than Baleba, who got the Forest winger over the line. There was no arguing with that decision and Chris Wood sent Bart Verbruggen the wrong way from the spot.

But suddenly the red wall that Forest had used so effectively last week to secure their first win against Liverpool at Anfield since 1969 collapsed before Espirito Santo’s eyes just before half-time.

First, Forest cleared the ball from the home side’s near corner. When defender Nikola Milenkovic found himself occupied by Danny Welbeck, Brighton’s most obvious attacking threat, Jack Hinshelwood saw an opportunity. He crept around the back and headed the ball past goalkeeper Matz Sels with a flourish.

A few minutes later the home side turned the game around when the tricky Kaoru Mitoma provoked a foul from Ola Aina just over 20 metres from goal just before half-time.

Putting the ball over the far post, Welbeck curled a brilliant free-kick into the far corner. Sels didn’t move a muscle.

The goalkeepers’ union could argue that Hinshelwood did enough in the wall to block Sels’ view. That was not an argument Roy Keane accepted. “Sels should be fined a week’s wages,” the Irishman said on Sky Sports duty. “You can’t get beaten on that side. It’s that bad.” It was hard to disagree with that assessment.

Espirito Santo made it clear what he thought of his team’s implosion and made a triple substitution when the match restarted.

It appeared to make little difference early on as Welbeck was allowed to force his way into the Brighton penalty area, brushing aside tame fouls from Elliot Anderson and Aina, before Sels brilliantly saved his brainless first half with his feet.

Espirito Santo had no choice but to take the gamble again if Forest were to maintain their unbeaten start to the season. He replaced Anderson with Ramon Sosa and just over 10 minutes later, just as at Anfield, his substitutions paid off.

It was a smart move: Wood moved into midfield and laid off Gibbs-White, who slotted Jota Silva past Lewis Dunk with a brilliant pass.

The Portuguese forward headed for goal but opted for the selfless option and passed the ball to Sosa, who scored his first goal for the club and completed the comeback.

Then came the ultimate critical moment, when Jones showed his red card not once, not twice, but three times.

It caused anger on the pitch and in the stands, but ultimately ended any hope that either side would pick up a winner, and with that everyone could catch their breath again.