I'm at bit biased here as I don't see anything wrong with trying to give Lansbury a sneaky kick, in fact, with that hair, it's harder for players NOT to give him a whack. The ref should have used his common sense and realised that Lansbury and brought it all on himself by being him.
Having watched the highlights and heard Benitez, I think Newcastle were unlucky with both sending offs and the disallowed goal. Forest bundled two particularly shite goals across the line. Newcastle won't have a joker like Steve Martin showing off on the Sky cameras every week so now is the time...