Brighton and Hove Albion (H) 01/02/25

Nottingham Forest 7-0 Brighton and Hove Albion

Dunk OG 12'

Gibbs-White 25'

Wood 32', 64', 69' (Pen)

Williams 89'

Jota Silva 90+1'

 

Eight games unbeaten until Forest took a trip to the Vitality Stadium last match week. A lack of effort, an unwillingness and being purely outclassed across the whole field saw Nuno’s side fall to only their 5th defeat of the season. They were facing a Brighton team with only 2 wins in their last 11 Premier League games. We all know what happened last time Forest took an embarrassing defeat. Could they repeat the same run?

The last meeting between these sides back in October at the AMEX ended 2-2 after a fiery game. Goals from Chris Wood and Ramon Sosa saw the Reds bringing back a point from the south coast. In the previous season, the Seagulls did the double over Forest winning both 1-0 and 3-2. However, since the Reds’ promotion back in 2022, this fixture has had 4 red cards, 2 penalties and 2 own goals. We were definitely in for a tasty meeting.

At 11:15am when the line ups came out, I don’t think we expected to see Danilo starting but after a lengthy 5 months out with a broken ankle, he returned to add new energy into the midfield. As the City Ground atmosphere started building, the game started with a real pace to it but before Brighton could begin to dictate the tempo, the hosts were in front. As Brighton tried to clear a further Forest attack, Danilo won the ball back in midfield and played a beautiful pass out to Morgan Gibbs-White in space on the right. He drove into the box and put a teasing low ball across the 6-yard box looking for Wood. Lewis Dunk stretched out to get a foot to it and instead put it into his own net. The Reds have gone ahead in 18 games this season, winning 12 of those. Looking to extend this lead, red shirts incepted a Brighton attack at one end before quickly getting away on the counter through Anthony Elanga. He drove down the left side and into the box before cutting inside and seeing his low shot fizz narrowly wide of the far post.

Before they knew it, Forest had doubled their lead. Elanga whipped in a corner from the left towards the near post. Gibbs-White lost his marker with brilliant movement to meet the ball and flick it into Verbruggen’s net. Just moments later, the visitors were up the other end looking to decrease the deficit. Danilo’s poor touch in midfield allowed Joao Pedro to latch onto the ball and continue his run before playing Yankuba Minteh in down the right of Forest’s box. Matz Sels came rushing out to meet him and make the angle tighter so the Gambian’s low shot was saved by his legs and gathered. The drama continued as Neco Williams hit the woodwork. Gibbs-White played a lovely switch ball from right to left for the Welshman. To make his angle at goal easier, he cut inside to get more central but his powerful shot from the edge of the box was only stopped by the right post. However, it was soon 3-0 as Wood got himself on the scoresheet. Ola Aina had the ball on the right before nutmegging a Brighton defender to find Elanga. He jumped over the incoming tackle from Lamptey and took a few touches before delivering in a ball for Wood at the back post. You know what happens next: goal! The unmarked striker nodded down and the ball bounced into the net beyond Verbruggen. Brighton are the first side Wood has scored 10 league goals against in English football.

The frantic feel of the first half didn’t stop there as the visitors hit the woodwork themselves. Sels played the ball long into the middle of the field looking for Wood but he couldn’t control it and the Seagulls won the ball back. They quickly broke forward through Georgino Rutter before he found Danny Welbeck on the edge of the box. He took several touches before looking to curl one into the top right corner. His attempt hit the under side of the cross bar and bounced down onto the goal line before Sels got up to collect. Luckily for Forest, referee Simon Hooper’s watch never buzzed and the clean sheet was still intact. On replay, you can see Sels make a brilliant fingertip save to tip it onto the bar!

What a thrilling half of football. Could it get more exciting? The Seagulls started the half dominating and putting Forest under pressure. However, with one quick break, their lead was further extended. Morato’s headed clearance looked to be going out of play but Aina kept it in. He linked up with Gibbs-White before finding Danilo in space in midfield who played forward to Elanga on the right. The Swede drove at Dunk all the way to the byline before pulling back across the 6-yard-box where Wood was waiting for a simple tap in. Wood was on for the hattrick and he would be taking the match ball home after netting from the spot. Elliot Anderson put in a corner from the right looking for Gibbs-White at the front post. Tariq Lamptey had a hold of the Forest number 10 and hurled him to the floor so the referee pointed to the spot. Wood stepped up and fired into the bottom right corner, sending Verbruggen the wrong way.

Forest had got their goal difference from the 5-0 defeat to Bournemouth back but could they add to it? Jota Silva won the ball back down the right before passing to substitute Taiwo Awoniyi. He drove into the box and sent Van Hecke the wrong way before turning to the other to make the angle better, only to have his shot saved by Verbruggen. He parried straight back into the path of Ibrahim Sangare who looked to bring the ball down and shoot but was bought down by Minteh. He looked at the referee but Neco Williams ran in and stopped over the ball before shooting into the roof of the net from only 5 yards out to get his first City Ground goal. VAR looked at a handball by Sangare but deemed it to be accidental.

If Reds’ fans thought they were dreaming, they would be pinching themselves as Jota Silva made it 7. The visitors were passing the ball around the back as 9 minutes of stoppage time was announced. Verbruggen didn’t look up as he played the pass, playing it straight to Jota. He took a few touches to get closer to goal before shooting through the ‘keeper’s legs to net his first Premier League goal.

After last Saturday, it was all about how we reacted to the defeat and we definitely got one. I think the change of formation really helped this as it allowed everyone to feel more secure and it allowed the return of Danilo which I am very happy about. I have been waiting to see a midfield of Morgan, Elliot and Danilo and it was so worth it. All 3 of them played a huge role. The rest of the team did too and if I had to pick a man of the match it would probably be Woody for his hattrick but Morgan played exceptionally. We came out in the first half with so much intensity and when we scored a few it was really nice to see us playing with confidence and trying all these lovely passes across the pitch and long distance shots. To be fair to Brighton, they didn’t look like they were 3-0 down in 30 minutes but their defending let them down. They didn’t really test Sels either and he is now the first ‘keeper to hit double digits for clean sheets. I think once we weathered their spell and carried on our performance in the second half and we were unstoppable, looking completely different to the previous week. That was the second-quickest we have scored three goals in a Premier League game too. Now the players are off to Dubai before a cup tie against Exeter.

 

Forest: Sels; Morato, Milenkovic, Murillo (Boly 72’); Williams, Anderson (Sangare 82’), Danilo (Dominguez 65’), Aina; Gibbs-White (Jota Silva 72’); Wood (Awoniyi 82’), Elanga

Brighton: Verbruggen; Lamptey, Dunk, Van Hecke, Veltman; Hinshelwood (Gomez 46’); Mitoma (Adingra 46’), Joao Pedro (O’Riley 46’), Rutter, Minteh; Welbeck (Ferguson 73’)