Nottingham Forest continued their dreadful run of form and slide down the league table with a 3-0 defeat away to Middlesbrough at the Riverside. Second half goals from George Friend, Vossen and Grant Leadbitter were enough to secure all three points for Middlesbrough.
Forest started the first half off probably the best they had done in a long time. They looked more solid defensively and were playing the ball on the floor a bit more than they had done of late. Middlesbrough were also playing the ball around well, which was expected as they are high on confidence and flying at the minute. George Friend appeared to be the most threatening Middlesbrough player in the first half, putting in a very good performance. The opening minutes, were limited to half chances for both teams, with no real clear cut action. George Friend was denied twice by Karl Darlow with the first being a fantastic save. Darlow helped Forest make it to the break with a clean sheet, mainly due to his brilliance to deny a couple of long range Friend efforts. Other than that, Forest managed to nullify Middlesbrough's threat and limit them to few chances, making them reasonably happy with their first half performance.
Stuart Pearce decided to make a change at the break with David Vaughan replacing top scorer Britt Assombalonga. This was a very questionable decision from Pearce who now left himself open for criticism. Then came the first goal of the game, George Friend leaped highest in the box, and headed home with Darlow having no chance. Looking back at the goal, it was Danny Fox who was at fault after failing to deal with the corner. Robert Tesche was unlucky not to equalize as his long range effort went just wide of the goal. Danny Fox then should have done better as his header went straight at the Middlesbrough keeper. Forest started to create more chances with Fryatt also heading straight at the keeper from a Ben Osborn cross. Then came the turning point in the game as Kelvin Wilson was sent off for a second bookable offence. Vossen then sealed the three points for Middlesbrough as he fired into the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-0. Middlesbrough then got a penalty after Bamford went down from Darlow's challenge. Grant Leadbitter stepped up and smashed it home to make it 3-0 to Middlesbrough and claim all three points.
Overall, it was a shocking result and performance from Forest. It was an unacceptable display and Pearce has to recognize that the players aren't performing to the standard that they should be doing. The three goals given away were all very poor and could have been prevented. It was a stupid sending off from Wilson's point of view to make an already difficult game even harder. Forest now have a game in two days time against Birmingham City to bounce back.
No comments:
Post a Comment