Match Report v Nottingham Forest

After our record Champions League win against USG in midweek, and with an international break to follow, it was no surprise that Eddie named an unchanged side against Forest.

Many fans, including me, were expecting a comfortable win to get our Prem campaign back on track after the superb, and record, CL away win on Wednesday. However, in hindsight, the narratives of the two games were totally different. And that became obvious from the kick off.

USG were full of confidence. top of the Belgian League, unbeaten, and fresh from a very impressive 3-1 CL away win against PSV. No way were they going into the game lacking confidence or playing for anything other than a win, especially against a tram with only one win in six Prem games. Eddie could have been forgiven for instructing the team to employ the classic away tactic of keeping it tight early on, defending in depth, and silencing the crowd. Instead, we hit USG from the off with a high intensity, high press, attacking storm that blew away any ideas they had of controlling the game. USG's set up was set to attack and that left plenty of space for our mids and wingers to exploit. And that they did, setting up chance after chance. USG weren't expecting that, and it showed.

The Forest narrative was the opposite. The beloved Nuno gone, Postecoglou win-less after six games, already under pressure to save his job, and injuries to key players. If this was a 'must win' game for the Toon... it was a 'must not lose' game for Postecoglou. No surprise therefore that he played a 541 formation that set up deep and was clearly designed to stifle, frustrate and with the priority, not to win, but to avoid defeat.

That meant, instead of the wide open spaces that USG's set up gave us, we were faced with a team hell bent on closing us down, breaking up play with fouls, and stacking players in front of our wingers to deny them an easy opportunity to get crosses into big Wolt. And the fact is, especially in the first half, it was working. Other than the superb save by Sels from Jo's header we never really threatened to score. Wolt never had one cross into the box that gave him even the remotest chance of a header, never mind getting one on target. And, that didn't change in the second half. Why?

My opinion after the first half was that we were overplaying our attacks, trying to 'one two' our way through to an easy chance, and not getting crosses in early. Elanga. especially, was guilty of that. Forest knew his strength was knocking the ball past his marker, killing him for speed, and whipping in crosses from the goal line. So, they stacked up players behind the first defender. Time and again, instead of hitting an early ball into the box for Wolt, Elanga tried to beat every player in front of him and either lost possession or was forced to pass back. On the opposite wing Gordon didn't fare much better and the result was Wolt was starved of the crosses he has already scored from.

Having said that we still had chances to score in the second half but, in addition to his first half stunner, Sels pulled off some terrific saves to initially keep Forest in the game and then to keep the score down. But, he could do nothing to get near Bruno's tremendous strike that brought the house down and put us deservedly ahead. These were the type of goals we saw from Bruno in his first half season after signing and he is capable of, and should be, scoring more of these wonder strikes. The simple way to do that is to shoot more often. Other than Tonali and Schar, no player often tries a shot from distance. A goal opportunity IMO that Eddie needs to work on.

For the second, and decisive goal, Elliott Anderson brought down Bruno in the box for a clear penalty. There is always the worry that ex players will come back to haunt us - as Chris Wood did with his hattrick two seasons ago - but this time it was an ex player who gave us the chance to wrap the game up. And boy, did Wolt wrap it up in style. For a second I thought he'd skied it over the bar until the net bulged and the Gallowgate erupted. His penalty blast reminded of the one that old timers (very old timers!) will recall... Malcolm McDonald's first goal for NUFC against Liverppol, a penalty hammered high into exactly the same spot in the roof of the net. No keeper in the world would have saved either of the two penalties..

That goal made it three in his first three home games for the Toon, a feat only previously achieved by Shearer and Les Ferdinand. If Woltemade can keep matching the records of those two legends he'll be some player. And, I wouldn't put it past him.

In summary: We got the 'must win' win we needed even if it wasn't in the rampaging style of the USG performance. We've moved up to 11th in the table and restored our GD to a positive, albeit just 1. Next up its Brighton on Saturday, 18 October after the international break before facing Jose Mourinho's Benfica at St James' Park in the Champions League on Tuesday, 21 October. Then it's two more winnable Prem ganes against Fulham and West Ham.

As I pointed out in the Forest pre-match summary, win two of our next three Prem games and we'll match last seasons 10 game points tally of 15. Three wins, or two wins and a draw, and we'll be ahead. Both are definitely achievable.

Comments welcome.