Former Liverpool striker Taiwo Awoniyi guilty of 'one of the worst penalties ever' as Nottingham Forest register unwanted record for 18 years

Taiwo Awoniyi was left visibly distraught on the pitch after his shock penalty miss saw Nottingham Forest knocked out of the Carabao Cup.

A talkSPORT pundit called it “the worst penalty I've ever seen” as the former Liverpool The youngster fired the ball over the bar and almost out of the stadium into the River Trent, leaving Sean Longstaff to score the winning penalty. send Newcastle to the third round.

After a tense match in which the Toon scored after 18 seconds and summer signing Jota Silva scored the equaliser in his first start for the new club ForestThe match went straight to penalties and extra time was only played in the semi-final.

Newcastle – boosted by the return of Sandro Tonali from his betting suspension – were the first to blink when Joelinton's penalty was saved by Carlos Miguel, another Forest debutant.

But the hosts squandered their lead when Ibrahim Sangare crashed his shot against the bar, setting up Awoniyi for his chance to keep Forest in the game.

But instead he sent the ball into Nottingham's orbit, leaving the striker and his manager inconsolable. Nuno Espirito Santo stupefied on the sidelines.

“It's an absolutely terrible penalty,” said talkSPORT commentator Sam Matterface, speaking live from the City Ground.

“He dropped it on the bar with a spoon, so high it could well be floating in the Trent as we speak. Nuno Espirito Santo can’t believe what he’s seen.”

And it is no wonder the manager was stunned as misses from Sangare and Awoniyi ended Nottingham Forest's incredible run of winning on penalties.

This was the club's first penalty shoot-out defeat in 18 years, a run stretching back to their defeat to Bristol City in the EFL Trophy (then the LDV Vans Trophy) in 2006.

They were a League One club at the time, and had enjoyed six consecutive penalty shootout successes before their Carabao Cup departure to Newcastle.

In fact, before Wednesday night, Forest boasted a staggering 83 per cent shoot-out win rate, winning 10 out of 12 throughout their professional history – that is the best penalty record in the entire Premier League.

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Newcastle, meanwhile, were at the other end of that table, with a paltry 27 per cent shootout win percentage. How the tables turn, eh?

Back to Awoniyi, the poor guy. Nuno couldn't believe what had just happened, and neither could the ex. Arsenal star Adrian Clarke, who was watching the match alongside Matterface for talkSPORT at the City Ground.

“It’s a horrible, horrible, horrible effort from Awoniyi, it almost went in. It’s one of the worst penalties I’ve ever seen!

“It’s a pretty weak run, but then he launches it into the air, I’d say almost twice the height of the crossbar. It went MILES away! Not even close, not even close, it was really, really horrible.

“It was incredibly bad. I wanted the ground to swallow him up, he was inconsolable, right? His head was inside his shirt, the shirt was pulled up over his head.

“He is distressed because he knows that that was the key moment of the penalty shootout.

“Pressure can have strange effects on players, it’s not a question of technique, he just broke down at the key moment. He was probably very tired. He probably didn’t expect to last the 90 minutes, he hasn’t played much football, he’s been in and out of the team with injuries for so long, he was probably exhausted!”

“But that's no excuse for such a bad penalty. It's bad luck.” Nottingham ForestBut I have to say that the right team has come through here.”