Brentford boss Thomas Frank demanded to know why VAR was not being used in the Sky Bet Championship play-offs after Rico Henry’s controversial red card handed a slender semi-final advantage to Swansea.
Andre Ayew’s stunning strike nine minutes from time gave Swansea a 1-0 semi-final lead to take to Griffin Park for the second leg on Wednesday.
But Frank was furious about the incident, saying: “I don’t think it was a red card. We are 100 per cent going to appeal and I expect it (red card) to be cancelled, so Rico can play on Wednesday night.
“I think there should be VAR in these games. I understand why we do not have it in the Championship but these games are so decisive.
“We are playing for promotion to Premier League, we are playing for £170million, so I don’t understand why we don’t have it in these games.
“VAR definitely wouldn’t have given it. But that is for the future and hopefully the EFL will do something about that.”
“The red card, you can’t do that nowadays,” Cooper said.
“You can’t be as excessive as that, as dangerous as that, whether there is a touch on the ball or not, and expect to stay on the pitch.
“Times have changed. The only positive was that Connor got up because I really feared for him.”
“There’s a small advantage, but it’s only an advantage if we use it,” Cooper said.
“We will recover and prepare as we do normally. Nothing changes.
“As far I’m concerned, it will be 0-0 and we will go to play normal as we do in every single game.
“It’s still all to play for. It’s still in the balance.”
“It’s not going to be difficult all,” he said.
“You can see the fire in the eyes of the players.
“There are no heads dropped, just heads up. They are ready to go.”
