Nottingham Forest ended their miserable run of form in the most dramatic fashion as they beat Derby County late on at the iPro Stadium. Henri Lansbury's own goal gave Derby a deserved 1-0 defeat heading into the break. However, the second half was a different story as late goals from Britt Assombalonga and Ben Osborn gave Forest a sweet 2-1 victory at the home of their arch rivals.
It was a typical start to a derby game, with little real action going on in the match. It was a nervy start from both teams as they looked to get the better of their arch rivals. Robert Tesche had his cross cleared for a corner, which Ben Osborn failed to deliver anything meaningful from. Forest could have had a penalty after just six minutes as Jake Buxton appeared to do almost a rugby tackle on Britt Assombalonga from a corner but amazingly nothing was given. Derby were looking the better team and full of confidence in the first 15 minutes of the game. Kelvin Wilson had to be alert to block Craig Bryson's goal bound effort. Then came a sickening moment for the Forest faithful who had travelled up in their numbers from Nottingham. Johnny Russell took a corner for Derby heading towards the near post and Henri Lansbury who appeared to be put off by Chris Martin inadvertently headed the ball into the back of his own net. This have Derby a 1-0 lead after 16 minutes, which Derby fans would argue they probably deserved. Then came what I think was a huge point in the game. Jamie Ward caused Forest lots of problems on the edge of the box and managed to pull of a shot which was headed on by Jake Buxton and Dorus De Vries came up with a superb stop to put the ball over the bar. This answered many questions as to why Karl Darlow was dropped from the Forest line-up. Jack Hobbs then tried his luck with an ambitious volley from a long way out which went miles wide of the target. Will Hughes was just inches away from making it 2-0 Derby as his shot just curled away from the top corner at the last minute. Britt Assombalonga managed to get his first real chance of the game as he shrugged off his marker and hit a dipping shot just over the bar. This gave Forest reason to be optimistic as they went into half-time 1-0 down.
Forest started the second half very well and started to put some pressure onto Derby. A Ben Osborn corner caused Derby lots of problems and it ended up with Michail Antonio having two shots blocked when it looked like he was going to divert the ball into the back of the net. There was then an appeal for handball from Forest as Ben Osborn's shot was blocked. Forest then deservedly found their route back into the match. Derby failed to deal with Osborn's free-kick which ended up with Keogh failing to clear and Britt Assombalonga turning the ball past Lee Grant in the Derby goal and into the back of the net to make it 1-1. Derby appeared to be stunned and rarely threatened to go back in front after the equalizer. Then came the huge moment in the game. As Derby piled forward, they lost the ball to Robert Tesche who allowed Ben Osborn some space on the left hand side of the pitch. Osborn didn't look back as he raced forward into the box, he could have passed to Assombalonga but instead hit an absolute scorcher into the top left hand corner. This gave Forest a famous 2-1 victory over Derby and was also their first win at Derby since Rob Earnshaw gave Forest a 1-0 win back in 2011.
Overall, it was a fantastic day for everyone connected with Forest. The build up was full of speculation about the manager, and the club seemed to be heading in the wrong direction. Now this massive win over our rivals could do the complete opposite. It should now give the players the confidence and some momentum to go on a good run of results to push us back up the league table. This was a very important game in which this sort of run could be started. It will be interesting to see if the players perform with the same sort of commitment which they showed in this match.
No comments:
Post a Comment