Nottingham Forest 0-1 Charlton Athletic (EFL Championship) 11.02.20

Nottingham Forest missed a massive opportunity to close the gap on the top two after falling to a single goal defeat at home to Charlton Athletic last night.

Anyone who has suffered through following Nottingham Forest Football Club and the EFL Championship will know that this kind of thing is more than predictable and anyone expecting an after the lord mayor’s show experience got exactly what they predicted and more.

On Saturday Forest were fantastic, an unbelievable occasion that may (or may not dependent on future results) live long in the memory billed as one of the great nights at the City Ground in recent memory. Tuesday however, was not.

Sabri Lamouchi tinkered with a winning formula making five changes to his side and resting key players in what was a decision that would clearly backfire and cost Forest hugely.

The away team took the lead on 24 when a superb cross by Sarr was met by January Forest target Lyle Taylor who smashed home his 12th goal of the season.

Forest went close through Tyler Walker in for rested top scorer Lewis Grabban (supposedly suffering with a slight knee injury) after netting at the weekend but the best chance of the half missed for the home side did nothing but increase the level of discontent amidst an already disappointed home crowd going into the break.

It might sound moody that Forest fans supporting a club fourth in the table before play and a point from second would even have the audacity to be angry with what they had seen, but in Sabri’s team selection many had been left bamboozled by the decision not to give the football club the best possible chance of winning a football game. If Sabri got it tactically spot on Saturday, he got it disaster-fully wrong last night.

The second half weren’t much better than the first. By then the damage had already been done and 27,000 home fans knew what was on the cards.

Walker fluffed another chance before Cash, the best right back in the league came on for Bong, a debutant who was thrown in at the deep end in a similar fashion to how you would in a Carabao Cup match. Bong was poor, so too Diakhaby, Forest without steel from Sow, without goal threat from Grabban, without the unpredictability of Ameobi, looking nothing like the side of three days previous.

Even though it was bad the Reds might have had an equaliser late on but it would have been unjust, Charlton deserved the three points. Forest deserved to lose. Never again should a winning team be tinkered so much with so little respect for an opponent.

This is the Championship, the hardest league in the world, we know that because we’ve been in it longer than anyone, that’s why when this sort of thing happens we have a right as fans to be angry.

After the game the coach stated “It was a wrong night, a bad performance, and probably my mistake.” A costly error of judgment made by Lamouchi as the Reds now need to pick themselves up to face the best team in the division at the Hawthorns on Saturday. Confidence simply dripping away from fans down simply to the fact the club decided that Charlton weren’t worth focusing on.

Final score Forest Reserves 0-1 Charlton Athletic. Please Sabri, do not tinker like that again.

Nottingham Forest: Samba, Jenkinson, Figueiredo, Worrall, Bong (Cash 59), Watson, Yates, Lolley, Silva (Semedo 59), Diakhaby (Da Costa 70), Walker.

Charlton Athletic: Phillips, Matthews, Lockyer, Pearce, Sarr, Doughty (Purrington 61), Davis, Oztumer (McGeady 59), Cullen, Taylor, Hemed (Smith 73).

Venue: City Ground (28,029)

*Main image @NFFC Sabri Lamouchi tinkered with his team making five changes to the one that beat Leeds.