We suffered a disappointing defeat at the City Ground on Sunday afternoon as Nottingham Forest ran out 3-0 winners.
Despite back-to-back home wins last week, we were second best on the banks of the River Trent as Callum Hudson-Odoi scored twice and Ibrahim Sangare hit a magnificent third to seal our fate, while we managed just one shot on target in the game.
Thomas Frank made two changes to the team that started our 3-0 win against Slavia Prague in the Champions League on Tuesday night – Rodrigo Bentancur and Randal Kolo Muani coming in for Joao Palhinha and Wilson Odobert. It was the same team that started against Brentford last weekend.
The first big chances of the game came just five minutes in and went to the home side. Nicolo Savona delivered a cross from the right and Sangare’s powerful header crashed back off the post, Igor Jesus’s shot was then blocked and, from the rebound, Nico Williams hit a drive which Guglielmo Vicario saved superbly diving to his left.
Our first sight of goal was a Richarlison header which he sent wide from six yards out from a Kolo Muani cross on 14 minutes while, 10 minutes later, a teasing cross from Williams into the box was glanced just wide by Nikola Milenkovic. We fell behind just before the half-hour mark with a goal that could have been avoided, Vicario passing the ball straight to Archie Gray on the edge of the area and he was closed down immediately by Sangare, who stole the ball off him and advanced on goal before touching it off for Hudson-Odoi to tuck home.
Gray almost made amends at the other end, hitting an excellent volley on the turn in the 34th minute which was saved low down by John Victor in the Forest goal, while the home side went close again shortly after, Morgan Gibbs-White with a clever back flick that touched off Bentancur and skipped just past the far post.
We trailed by one at the break, but that quickly became two early in the second half, when Hudson-Odoi cut onto his right foot out wide on the left and sent over a cross which looped over Vicario and into the far corner. A triple change just before the hour saw Gray, Bentancur and Djed Spence replaced by Palhinha, Lucas Bergvall and Ben Davies but it was Forest with two further chances as Jesus and Omari Hutchinson both hit efforts that fizzed just wide.
While we were seeing more of the ball as we looked for a way back into the game, we didn’t trouble Victor at all and instead, it was Forest who extended their lead further with 10 minutes left, Hudson-Odoi teeing up Sangare who struck a left-footed rocket 20 yards which flew into the top corner off the post. Vicario prevented further damage with two minutes remaining, saving Gibbs-White’s 22-yard free-kick and then Hutchinson’s effort from the rebound.