Fulham (H) 28/09/24

Nottingham Forest 0-1 Fulham

                                                       Jimenez 51' (Pen)

Our last win at home was back at the start of April. Our opponent? Fulham. My mum has created a new theory for this season: do better than (or equal too) the result against the same team last season. According to her today was a must win.

In the City Ground fixture, in one of the best first halves I’ve ever seen Forest play, we came out 3-1 winners with goals from Callum Hudson-Odoi, Chris Wood and Morgan Gibbs-White. As for the away fixture, Steve Cooper’s last away game as Forest boss, Fulham thrashed the Reds 5-0 on a cold Tuesday night in December.

The game got off to a slow start, with Fulham controlling possession, but neither team created any clear-cut chances. The first, and only, real chance of the first half fell at the feet off rare starter, Taiwo Awoniyi in the 19^th minute. Ola Aina launched in a throw-in from the right that was flicked on at the near post by Ryan Yates. Awoniyi looked to find the net with an acrobatic overhead kick but his attempt went over. Forest thought they had taken the lead through Chris Wood. Aina crossed from the right, Nikola Milenkovic won his header at the back post with the ball flashing across the face of goal, and Wood was back post to slide the ball in. Bernd Leno looked to have kept the ball out on the goal line, but it crept over, only for the linesman to flag the New Zealand international offside.

Quite an evenly matched, boring half where the only other half chances fell to Anderson and Alex Moreno, both with volleys at the edge of the box but both flashed just wide of the left post. Nuno Espirito Santo threw Anthony Elanga on at half-time in the hope of adding some pace. Drama started just 3 minutes into the second half. Referee, Josh Smith, originally seemed unphased when Andreas Pereia went to ground, following a cross from the left by Antonee Robinson. Murillo was deemed to have stood on the back of the Brazilian’s right foot and VAR sent Smith to the monitor where he overturned his decision. Raul Jimenez stepped up and slotted it towards the right of the goal just above Matz Sels who dived the right way.

Fulham’s goal gave them momentum and they started to dominate. Forest’s manager threw more attacking substitutes on to try and find an equaliser and one of them produced the Reds’ best chance of the game. Murillo broke into space in Fulham’s half before finding Hudson-Odoi on the left. He cut inside to try and create a better angle at goal but he blasted over from just 15 yards. A chance most Forest fans would expect him to score. Just moments before, in the same passage of play, Elanga went down as Forest asked questions for a penalty of their own. Wood intercepted a sliding pass from Alex Iwobi and played into an on running Elanga. He broke into the box and with a heavy touch, Calvin Bassey went to ground trying to win the ball back by scooping it. In the process, he caught the Swede’s foot, sending him to the ground.

Other than a volley from Jota Silva, there were no other clear-cut chances and Forest struggled to find an equaliser. Fulham were taking all 3 points back to West London.

We were really poor today and it was boring too. We can attribute blame towards the officials for giving a soft penalty, but 1 shot on target in 98 minutes isn’t good enough. I think the team Nuno fielded was way too defensive and we should’ve started with Callum and Jota on the wings with Anderson in behind Wood. In their game against Newcastle last week, Fulham left a lot of space in behind and it could’ve been exploited with proper wingers with pace. Yatesy put in a shift today and Murillo was strong at centre back as always. As for the penalties, it’s frustrating when the Premier League say it will be more ‘referee’s call’ and then VAR send him to the screen for the softest of touches. Jimenez’s run up is also wrong as he stops twice. I don’t necessarily think the tackle on Elanga is a penalty but if he gives the Fulham one, he must give that one too. We will still end the week in the top half so onto Chelsea next Sunday (if we can stop Palmer).

Forest: Sels; Moreno (Williams 84'), Murillo, Milenkovic, Aina; Dominguez (Hudson-Odoi 57'), Yates, Ward-Prowse (Sosa 75'), Anderson (Jota Silva 57'); Awoniyi (Elanga 46'), Wood 

Fulham: Leno; Tete, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson; Pereira (Sander Berge 69'), Lukic (Reed 83'); Traore (Nelson 69'), Smith-Rowe (Diop 88'), Iwobi; Jimenez (Muniz 83')