Nottingham Forest 0-2 Middlesbrough (EFL Championship) 15.09.21

It was just one of those nights where fans of Nottingham Forest Football Club had already determined their destiny, one said after forgetting his season-card on Sunday, where he was asked by the club ticket office to pay a further £10 for entrance, instead turning head to walk away from the stadium and watch the defeat to Cardiff City in the Trent Navigation Pub, that he “didn’t bother tonight, it makes my blood boil” he said, “I watched married at first sight instead”.

Many failed to take the plunge into City Ground misery, but 23,000 did, and the majority of those already knew what to expect, obvious defeat by an old unfashionable Manager of an old unfashionable side, like on Sunday, Neil Warnock did what Mick McCarthy did, and shown that just because you don’t play sexy football, it doesn’t mean you can’t win.

After a bright start by Forest where Zinckernagel tested the palms of Boro net-minder Lumley before Grabban blasted the rebound over to be relieved of his blushes by the offside flag, the Reds Danish winger was robbed in possession on 24 minutes which lead to Tavernier feeding Sporar to race through and blast home what was an inevitable and very good opening goal from the away side.

Reds pressurised the Boro goal some more prior to the break but couldn’t come up with an equaliser, the half time team talk and tactical changes on 67 minutes having little impact, Boro were comfortable in the second half, which was more you could say about the Forest goalkeeper in possession.

Signed in the summer to put added pressure on Brice Samba, who’s lacked confidence ever since, Ethan Horvath was thrown into a no-win scenario last night, play well you’ll still probably lose, play badly, you’ll just look like the rest of them.

On 72 minutes Soh passed back to Horvath who’s laboured first touch bounced straight to Onel Hernandez, keeper on the deck slipping in the process to make up for his error, the Boro fans behind the goal were already cheering before Hernandez smashed home into an empty net to make it game, set, match.

You have to feel for a man who’s come in to a squad with little confidence, the goalkeeper is only questioned when he has too much to do, on Sunday, Samba was made busy and made to look bad by the Reds inept defending of crosses, that particular goalkeepers weakness is apparent, but adding Horvath, along with the forced swapping of Mbe-Soh at full back for Boro loanee Djed Spence who couldn’t play against his parent club, and not really much difference on the pitch, lead to not really much difference in result.

That statistical impact, a 14^th match without a win for Forest, a sixth defeat in seven this season, the worst start in over 100 years, it all leads to Chris Hughton’s role being very untenable.

Whilst the majority of those can justifiably claim that Hughton ‘had to’ go, some think that the problem is deeper, Hughton after all had ZERO funds to work with, whilst the club have severely offloaded to reduce wages, and brought in a number of loan signings (and unknowns), temporary fixes to a permanent problem.

Whilst the owners have certainly not covered themselves in glory with all of this, the Manager was the one to blame, but even he could not do anything about what happened across the white lines on the pitch, the players freed so far from the brunt of the blame, have clearly not been good enough. Scott McKenna who looked like a warrior in defence last season, half of himself, in midfield the side haven’t found the right combination, James Garner has not sparkled like he did last year, up front the club still look light and short of ideas. Lyle Taylor often questioned by supporters for spending more time on the floor than on his feet, It seems the blame should be spread further than just one man, the one who picks them, after all, these are good footballers, not performing for one reason or another, you couldn’t have a case for anyone bar loanee Zinckernagel and young Brennan Johnson (Max Lowe all be it just two games), having justifiably saying, they’ve done ‘ok’ thus far.

This all leaves a bitter taste, last night the synopsis was very much, ‘what time will Hughton be sacked’… It took until the morning, 9:30am to be announced, next, the predecessor, will hopefully have other ideas, ideas to get the best out of the players whilst working ‘with’ the owners, and in doing so, hopefully getting the fans ‘back’ on board too…

It seems a lot to ask for, 40 games of the season however remain, with news of a points deduction pending for fierce rivals Derby County who could potentially sit beneath the Reds in the table, the glimmer of hope for many, could still be upon the horizon, but whilst ‘improvement’ isn’t guaranteed, the fact for many was it couldn’t get any worse under Hughton, which is why, in the end, he paid the price.

*Main image @NFFC Zinckernagel in battle with Middlesbrough at the City Ground.