Nottingham Forest 0-4 Sheffield Wednesday (EFL Championship) 14.12.19

Nottingham Forest were spectacularly humiliated by Sheffield Wednesday losing 4-0 at the City Ground with all the away sides goals coming in the first half.

The Reds were behind in just nine minutes when Jordan Rhodes netted his first Sheffield Wednesday goal for 2 years in only his second start of the season after being loaned out to Norwich during the last campaign.

Rhodes made it two on 13 and then completed a 28 minute hat-trick with an over-head kick on 37 before Steven Fletcher got in on the act poking him in first half injury time.

That performance led to a half time exodus by home fans as the turnstiles emptied in their thousands with no way back for Forest but pride left to play for in the second half.

Sabri Lamouchi, angered by the performance kept the same eleven on for the complete 90 minutes of the match as they marginally improved to at least draw the second half whilst Wednesday cruised in third gear.

For Forest a humiliating home defeat that see’s them fall out of the playoff zone to eighth in the table overtaken by Sheffield Wednesday (amongst others) who are now up to fifth.

Manager Sabri Lamouchi was devastated with his sides performance after the game stating “Everything went wrong. I want to apologise for the big loss in front of our own fans. I am the only one responsible for the loss and it is a big disappointment for me, for the players and for the fans.”

“It has been a bad week, not just a bad day, so it is only from this that we need to learn. We gave them a lot but congratulations to Sheffield Wednesday, they played with quality and experience and they played in the right way.”

“I didn’t make any changes because three was not enough. The second half was different but it is easy to manage for the opponent and it is not enough.”

“Four down at home, without any yellow cards, without any energy or intensity. We missed a lot, we were wrong.”

“At the beginning of the season, our quality was the defensive aspect. Today it was a big weakness as we gave them four easy goals and maybe more.”

“I am very surprised and shocked. I have shame in this performance.”

Midfielder Ben Watson was more optimistic post match however suggesting “We will put it right. I have full belief in the squad and everyone involved; we are on a little drought and if you look through the league, everyone is beating everyone.”

“We haven’t won in four games but you look at the table and if we win that game in hand, we will go third. It is not just us that it is happening to, but it is an opportunity for us that if we took the points that we believe we could have done, it would have been a different story.”

Nottingham Forest: Samba, Cash, Dawson, Worrall, Robinson, Watson, Silva, Yates, Ameobi, Grabban, Carvalho.

Sheffield Wednesday: Dawson, Palmer, Iorfa, Lees (Borner 78), Fox, Reach, Luongo, Bannan, Harris, Rhodes (Winnall 87), Fletcher (Nuhiu 81).

Venue: City Ground (28,002)

*Main image @NFFC Matt Cash striking the ball in defeat verses Wednesday.