Former Nottingham Forest star Brian Laws believes that the Leeds United fans initimated the match officials at Elland Road to such an extent that they were unwilling to rule out Kemar Roofe's goal for handball.
Aitor Karanka's men were leading 1-0 in the Championship clash against Leeds heading into the final ten minutes, closing in on all three points.
But with eight minutes left, Roofe reached to connect with a cross and helped the ball into the back of the net with his arm.
The linesman appeared to have an unobstructed view, but did not flag, while the referee also dismissed protests, to award the goal for Leeds.
Roofe's controversial goal secured a 1-1 draw for Leeds and the striker admitted post match that the ball had hit his hand.
Laws believes that the match officials were guilty of bottling it in the face of the fierce Elland Road crowd and concluded that awarding the goal was the easy route.
"I think they [the officials] were scared", Laws said on BBC Nottingham Sport.
"I think they were intimidated by the crowd.
"I think that was emphasised when the crowd really got going behind the team when they were still losing 1-0 and they were throwing everything at Forest to try and get an equaliser.
"I think the referee buckled a little bit, as did the linesman, and I don't think either of them wanted to make a decision, controversially, and perhaps they might not have got out of Elland Road [laughs], if they'd said it was a handball.
"The easy route was giving the goal", the former Forest man added.
The top of the Championship remains congested, with just six points between leaders Sheffield United and tenth placed QPR.
