'I fully agree' - Virgil van Dijk makes Liverpool mentality point after Nottingham Forest drama

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And the captain believes Alexis Mac Allister's 97th-minute strike was just reward for a much-improved second half at the City Ground as the Reds went level on points with Chelsea in fourth.The defending Premier League champions were second best during a poor opening 45 minutes but regrouped at the interval and had big chances after the break through Curtis Jones and Hugo Ekitike, who were both denied by Stefan Ortega.Mac Allister thought he had won it in bizarre circumstances when blocking an attempted clearance from Ola Aina in the closing stages but a VAR check ruled it out for handball.READ MORE: National media make Liverpool point after 'bedlam' at Nottingham Forest - 'Part of a wider theme'READ MORE: Florian Wirtz hands Liverpool injury scare as last-minute change made at Nottingham ForestAnd Van Dijk says the players deserve credit for not letting that decision stand in their way, with the Argentina midfielder making sure in the final seconds of the game."I fully agree with that [we showed strong mentality] because when the goal is disallowed, the momentum shifts and the [Forest] fans are fully behind it," Van Dijk said. "They may believe this is the opportunity to bounce back after a little bit of disappointment they had."But I think we did well, we created the chaos with the throw-ins we had and we managed to score the winner.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE!

All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook page"I think our resilience has definitely been questioned at times this season but I think today and the last couple of games especially, we have shown a consistency in everything we do, apart from the first half today."But, like I say, football is not just 45 minutes it is 90-plus minutes and that showed today."It was definitely not a very good performance in the first half but obviously there is another 45 minutes and opportunity to show our quality in the second half, where there is plenty of time to do that. We did that."I think this just confirms that football is not played over 45 minutes where we were very poor in the first half.

In the second half we completely turned it around, I think we were much more comfortable on the ball and made the right decisions with and without the ball."We won the ball a lot higher up the pitch and defending in our box was very good today, in my opinion, but we were a little on the lucky side today with the goal at the end but that is football as well."I think it is a collective thing that changed it, everyone was much better in the second half, I think. No-one was at their best standard in the first half."Van Dijk also revealed what Mac Allister told him about the first goal that was chalked off following a VAR intervention, adding: "Macca said it to me when he walked off the pitch, he said he thought it could be handball and it might be disallowed and those are the rules."If it goes in off a hand, regardless of how close it is, it was disallowed and that was the case."Ensure our latest sport headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source.