Nottingham Forest continued their slide down the Championship table as Brentford defeated them 3-1 at the City Ground. Jon Toral, Andre Gray and Alex Pritchard were the players to capatalise on what was shambolic defending from Forest. Michail Antonio pulled one back for Forest but it was never going to be enough to hide the embarrassment of Forest losing yet another match to a team they should be beating if they hope to achieve promotion.
The first half began pretty steadily with the away side settling into the game and looking in a confident mood. Forest appeared to also look more solid than they had been in previous games especially against Huddersfield. This could have been because Stuart Pearce picked a more defensive starting-11 with Michail Antonio played as a lone striker. However, Forest's defence quickly returned to the shambles of previous matches. Moses Odubajo ran at the Forest defence and almost fed Andre Gray in on goal who was clattered by Jack Hunt and the ball eventually found Jon Toral in a dangerous position who took no time in smashing the ball into the top corner of the net to make it 1-0 Brentford. What was next to come could be a contender for blooper of the season from Forest's Eric Lichaj. He had only been on the field a matter of minutes before he made one of the worst back passes I have ever seen. His pass was way short of Darlow with no pressure on him whatsoever and it allowed Andre Gray an early Christmas present to go round the keeper and put Brentford 2-0 up. It was inexcusable from Lichaj who looks a shadow of the player from last year and the beginning of this season who looked so solid. Brentford had a fantastic chance to make it 3-0 and kill the game off before half-time but Douglas failed to score with the goal at his mercy. The half-time whistle was met with boos from some of the Forest fans, understandably after a first half performance which was just not acceptable.
Stuart Pearce decided something had to change at half-time and he brought on top scorer Britt Assombalonga for defender Jamaal Lascelles. Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for Forest, they did just three minutes into the second half. Andre Gray received the ball in the penalty area before being taken down in what was a terrible challenge by Kelvin Wilson. It was a penalty all day long and Alex Pritchard stood up to take it and converted it into the middle of the goal to make it 3-0 to the away side and effectively kill the game off. Things got even worse for Forest as Danny Fox was carried off on a stretcher meaning Forest were down to ten men after already using all of their substitutes. This was to add to an injury to Jack Hunt who was taken off with a knock earlier on in the game. Michail Antonio managed to get a consolation goal for Forest in the 82nd minute after a good pass from Jamie Paterson as he scored a screamer into the top corner from around 35 yards out. However, it was too little too late for Forest who had lost the game a long time before this. The full time whistle was again met with boos from some of the Forest fans, but their support was very good the whole way through the match as they continued to support their team even when 3-0 down.
Overall, this was a dismal performance from a Forest side who are now massively underachieving in the league. It is no acceptable for a team who are as good as we are on paper to be losing 3-1 to a team like Brentford who have just been promoted from League One. However, it just shows what a crisis of confidence the players have at the moment as I am sure if this match was played at the beginning of the season Forest would have won comfortably. Some fans will now call for Stuart Pearce to get sacked but I don't think this is the right attitude to have. At the moment the fans need to get behind the team and urge them on to a victory. It is clear how quickly things can change in football. You only have to look at Alan Pardew and Newcastle United to see this. The only way we are going to improve is with stability and that means keeping Stuart Pearce and allowing him to turn things around which I'm sure he will.
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