Forest Edging Nervously Nearer

Nottingham Forest 1-1 Aston Villa (Premier League) 12.11.26

Forty points is usually target for Premier League safety, thirty eight or nine might be enough, 42 or 43 this year might not be, the relegation race away is running and as the Reds picked up a plucky point against a very good Aston Villa, does it feel enough, at this stage, nobody even knows?

One thing Nottingham Forest Manager Vitor Pereira knows, however, is that ‘destiny’ is in the clubs own hands, the draw at a wet, windy, bright, sunny, City Ground on a typical April Sunday afternoon, giving the Reds a three point advantage over Tottenham Hotspur who they thumped 3-0 (twice) seemingly forever ago, Spurs have a new manager since the Tudor reign failed, but not even Roberto De Zerbi could make a difference at Sunderland, as the Whites from what was once White Hart Lane, lost at the Stadium of Light against the Black Cats.

That result a huge boost for Forest who’s fans and players and staff all knew about West Ham winning against Wolves on Friday night, the Hammers hammering their long suffering opponents 4-0 to make a statement, Nuno has form for getting his teams away from danger, of course we know about that.

After a hard fought draw in Porto midweek, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa, who were in Bologna, also in Europa League action, had the favourable tie of playing against each other (they might soon be playing each other again), as Thursday night hangovers often seem to get the better of you, at least these two jet lagged Midlanders had no excuses about fresher and fitter opponents.

The Reds started brightly, in a soddened hail storm at the City Ground, but fell behind as a low Morgan Rogers cross was turned into his own net by defender Murillo, the ball bouncing off calf to shin before nestling in the back of the Trent End goal.

It wasn’t deserved, as the Reds had played well up until that point, but when Ollie Watkins raced clear to have an effort saved by Sels, and when Rogers cracked a crossbar, fans might have been forgiven for feeling that the Forest forage was falling away?

Enter Neco Williams, who has been absolutely brilliant this season, so good, recently voted player of the month, probably a good call for player of the year, arguably our best left back since Stuart Pearce, epitomising the Psycho style in his play, full throttle, thirsty, defending with Garibaldi soldier levels commitment, getting forward and now getting goals and assists that matter. Williams struck on 38 after the otherwise quiet Callum Hudson-Odoi laid back to him, right footed, into the corner of Marco Bizot’s net from the edge of the area.

That set up a second half nicely between two Midland rivals of massive magnitude but despite Forest being much the better of the two teams, the winner couldn’t be found, and in the end probably both sides were happy that they came away with at least a point more than they started with. Sels called into action on occasion, whilst Bizot was less busy, Forest had more pressure mounted in longer spells of possession, on another day, it could have ended 5-5, which history tells, can be a thing between the two.

On reflection, an okay weekend, Forest now have six games towards safety but a rather annoying but brilliant side distraction with the Europa League Quarter Final second leg on Thursday night, win that, even more matches to tire our tiring squad from but greed is good, we as fans want it all, safety and success.

Away from Europe, Forest must beat Burnley on Sunday, really, it’s a game the Reds should win. Do that, they’ll potentially be six points clear, at worst, three points with five to play, but Tottenham host Brighton, De Zerbi returns to face, there are so many twists and turns left, West Ham, even Leeds, who play both Spurs and and the Hammers, could also get sucked in.

Confidence is good, in the Forest camp, which is one large plus against their name. It’s been goals this season the issue, with Chris Wood returning from injury, back, all be it rusty in his play, how it will help if last seasons goal-getter does something special against his old club at the weekend, to help ease the pressure from those amongst, struggling, fighting, scrapping in the mix.

Forest: Sels, Aina (Ndoye 89), Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams, Sangare, Anderson, Hutchinson (Wood 65), Gibbs-White (Dominguez 84), Hudson-Odoi, Igor Jesus (Yates 89).