Forest Thumped By Wolves
Nottingham Forest 0-4 Wolverhampton Wanderers (EFL Cup Round Two) 24.08.21
A young Nottingham Forest side were well-beaten by Wolves as Chris Hughton’s Reds crashed out of the Carabao Cup to far superior Premier League opposition.
It was a fifth defeat in six matches this season and a third straight loss, worryingly Forest have now only beaten League Two opposition in Bradford City (in the first round of the Carabao Cup) over their last eleven competitive matches.
A team of seven Academy graduates came up in the end well short, said by some ‘threw under a bus’ by the Manager, against a Wolverhampton side that contained several internationals including Connor Coady, Joao Moutinho and Leander Dendoncker.
Testament to Forest youngsters though, who tried and worked their socks off to go in at half time scoreless, but zero shots on target for the second game in succession, is no signs that the side is improving regardless of who wears the garibaldi red.
Feel for young debutant Ollie Hammond, like Finn Back who’s been asked to do a mans job under testing times, 18-years young, up against seasoned Premier Leaguers, it would never be the Reds day. Chances went for Wolves before the break, Horvath in goal saving well on two occasions, one off the post, it was only time pending until the away side would score.
That time came on 58 minutes, a short corner chipped into the back post where Romain Saiss crashed in off the bar unmarked for the opener.
The goal opened the Forest defensive floodgates and two minutes later, young Riley Harbottle was caught in possession, Fabio Silva nicking the ball off the 20-year-old centre half making just his second ever Reds start to feed Daniel Podence for number two.
Then four minutes before half time a slick passing move from a dominant away side ended in Machado Trincao tapping home, two minutes later it was four, Harbottle again, passing out straight to a Wolves player, Dendoncker feeding Gibbs-White to smash home, a miserable night for a young team who came up against a mountain too tough ever to climb. Lessons learned? Perhaps, in coming up against quality opposition it may in long term help these youngsters, but those lessons now need to be learned by the Manager who also needs the players at his disposal, to make his job that bit easier, whether he’ll get the chance, is another question entirely.
Next up for Forest is Derby away, the result of that could determine the future of Chris Hughton, but in the defense of the manager who’s statistics have not been good enough alone, he needs the players and the depth of his squad improving, to have any chance of survival this year.
Someone once said ‘you don’t win anything with kids’ but it depends on the quality of those youngsters asked to do a job, these kids still need time to gel, but in the mean time it would help if those more experienced players, along with the Manager, Coaches, and decision makers at the club, to step up and do their bit too.
Nottingham Forest: Horvath, Back, Fernandes, Harbottle, Richardson, Fornah, Colback, Hammond (Mighten 73), Garner (Cafu 73), Konate, Grabban (Taylor 61).
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Ruddy, Kilman, Coady, Saiss, Hoever, Dendoncker, Joao Moutinho, Ait-Nouri (Traore 82), Gibbs-White, Fabio Silva (Cundle 89), Podence (Trincao 66).
Venue: City Ground (10,769)
*Main image @NFFC Forest were well beaten by Premier League opposition.
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