Nottingham Forest 1 v Middlesbrough 1 - EFL Championship

Tuesday 10th December 2019

SkyBet EFL Championship

at the City Ground Nottingham

Nottingham Forest (0) 1

Ryan Yates 63

Middlesbrough (0) 1

Paddy McNair 81 Pen

Attendance: 24,577 (inc. 500 away fans)

Nottingham Forest:
Samba, Cash, Dawson (C), Worrall, Robinson, Watson, Yates (Adomah 84), Silva (Semedo 77), Ameobi (Carvalho 72), Lolley, Grabban
Unused subs - Muric, Figueiredo, Mir, Chema
Middlesbrough:
Pears, Spence (Johnson 67), Fry, Ayala (C), Howson, Coulson, McNair, Saville, Clayton (Walker 73), Fletcher, Tavernier
Unused subs - Mejias, Wood, Bola, O’Neill, Liddle

Back to back Championship draws, in two games that they were winning, but failed to hold onto their lead in, has seen Forest fail to grasp the opportunity to steal the third-place berth in the table from Fulham for the second time in the matter of a few days, following their weekend draw at Millwall.

Yet, on a wild, wet and windswept night in West Bridgford, Sabri Lampuchi's side had enough of the ball, for long spells, to impose themselves on this game and put Middlesbrough under the cosh.

 

But they let their Teesside visitors off of the hook and failed to put them to the sword while lacking a ruthless edge to put the 'Boro keeper under any undue pressure at several critical moments when he looked anything but comfortable, with the ball at his feet while displaying a blatantly obvious level of vulnerability, that you would have expected any team with serious promotion-chasing aspirations to have taken full advantage of.

Don't get me wrong here, the Reds are genuine contenders, handily placed for in a top-six play-off place, but goals win games, not possession statistics. But Forest's malaise is symptomatic of this league, where only two sides, namely: Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion are currently showing anything like the kind of consistency required to sustain a realistic title challenge... and even they are still prone to the occasional wobble. And of course, it still remains to be seen if this will be the year that Leeds finally regain their long lost top-flight status, or whether they'll implode again with the finishing line in sight, as per what has become an annual tradition that they've adhered too laboriously in recent seasons.

Personally, I believe the two teams who are currently at the top of the Championship, will finish in the automatic promotion spots at the end of this term... but if I keep saying that about Leeds, just like I have done previously, mathematics and the law of averages say that I must get that particular prediction right eventually, don't they?

But what of tonight's two teams? Middlesbrough, for their part had to adopt a no risk policy, playing a deep holding game and probably setting out their stall to be content with a draw on their travels, to nudge them away from the wrong end of the table, while Forest, despite throwing away four points in their last two games, by failing to hold onto a winning score, are still in fourth place and unbeaten in three games, in fact they've only lost once in their last seven, so they're not too far away from making a fist of this season, even though they really should have seen off a very average 'Boro side tonight.

When the teams were announced in the build up to the game and Lewis Grabban and Joe Lolley both appeared on the team-sheet for the hosts, I hadn't expected them to struggle to find a breakthrough quite as miserably as they did, but maybe the visitors deserved more credit than they have been given, for keeping Forest at arms length.

Lolley and Grabban, along with Matty Cash all went close early on, but the fates were against Lamouchi's side tonight and the longer that they failed to turn their possession statistics into something more tangible, the more impatient and frustrated the home crowd became and that seemed to transmit itself onto the pitch, where Forest looked low on confidence and lacked any kind of flow in the final third, where they had put the squeeze on their opponents time after time, to no avail.

After the interval Sammy Ameobi got on the end of a lengthy Michael Dawson pass, that completely unlocked 'Boro's rearguard, but Pears did well to make a save down by his left hand post.

While paddy McNair was thwarted by Brice Samba, as the visitors made a rare excursion into the Forest area. Unlike his opposite number, Pears, the Reds' Congolese keeper looks controls the ball with no small amount of aplomb. It struck me that he'd make a decent outfield player with some of his footwork, which must be an asset in these days of playing the ball out from the back.

Pears had a lucky escape when Ryan Yates shot crashed up off of the ground and hit the crossbar, but two minutes later Yates found the target, when he diverted Matty Cash's right wing cross past Pears, with a deftly placed header.

"Nah, they've scored one, they'll have these... just you watch!", enthused a Forest fan sat in front of us. Whoops!

But the home side laboured to build on their lead and the floodgates remained tightly shut.

And then Middlesbrough forced their way back into the game, when Jack Robinson tripped Marvin Johnson inside the home sides area and McNair placed the resulting penalty kick past Samba, to claim a most unlikely point for the visitors.

Forest had to be content with another draw and were left to rue the territorial dominance that they had failed to convert into goals earlier in the game.

FT: Nottingham Forest 1 v Middlesbrough 1

Having reached my car and removed my layers of Polar expedition clothing, I heard the Forest manager lamenting on the radio: Maybe we were afraid to win. But we must play for the second goal, to close off the game.

"If you do not achieve the second goal, do not give them an opportunity. We have a lot of regrets.

"We need to find a solution. We must keep going; we must be positive. I am upset, like the players - because we lost two points tonight." Which, in a nutshell, summed up the game.

The Middlesbrough manager Jonathan Woodgate then said that his side had deserved a win. Well, they worked hard off the ball, so I s'pose he must've been content that they had done what was asked of them... but an actual win!? Ha, ha, pull the other one!

Forest are at home against Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend, which will most likely be a close run thing, while Middlesbrough face a trek down to Swansea City. 

I'll be at Birmingham City against West Bromwich Albion that afternoon... and possibly somewhere else following the 12.30PM kick-off at St. Andrew's, where I'll also be tomorrow night, when QPR are the visitors.