Nottingham Forest line-up: Pantilimon, Colback (Murphy, 77), Grabban, Carvalho, Osborn ©, Cash (Dias, 64), Robinson, Lolley, Yacob, Darikwa, Hefele. Subs not used: Steele, Guedioura, Janko, Ansarifard, Appiah.
PNE line-up: Rudd, Clarke ©, Hughes, Browne, Huntington, Davies, Barkhuizen, Gallagher, Moult (Ledson, 73), Johnson (Burke, 90), Barker (Nmecha, 25). Subs not used: Maxwell, Fisher, Storey, Woods.
Attendance: 27,777 (1,402 PNE fans)
Referee: Mr S Martin
It's an odd game having collapsed in a heap last week at Birmingham we pick up a win at Forest a week later and put in a performance that showed a team working for each other, this was a gritty performance againast a good Forest side who simply ran out of ideas.
Four changes from last week, Davies, Johnson and Clark returned from injury and Hughes returned instaed of the injured Earl at left back, looked a stronger side than last week also no change between the stick as Rudd kept his place.
Up against it for most of the first half as Forest came flying out of the traps, they were denied twice when players were through on goal by Rudd and the outstanding Davies, played some wonderful one touch football around our box but the final ball fell to no one on many occasions. Grabban went on one mazy run which should have brought a goal. Cash had a couple of efforts which went narrowly wide, however it was not all one way Barkhuizen had an effort cleared as it's made it's way to the goal, Nmecha failed to see Moult in acres of space.
One thing that helped was Barker getting injured he was replaced by Nmecha who put in a tremendous shift. Level at half time.
Forest on the front foot again at the start of the second period for the first time in four matches didn't concede in the first minute, weathered the early storm and then took the lead from our first corner, Nmecha got the ball near the byline in the second phase got towards the goal and fied across the face of the goal Moult antipated got in first goal(video underneath)
Could we survive yep, we did with in truth only one effort which caused Rudd to make a save and that was a header from Murphy late on, Ledson could have doubled the lead but Pantilimon got down to just about save. Bit hectic to the end but we held on and took three big points.
https://youtu.be/3Faohdkk_N4
Nottingham Forest manager Aitor Karanka said:
"I think the only thing we missed was scoring goals. In the first half in particular, we played really well and we should have been winning 2-0 or 3-0 by half time, if not by more.
"But we did not play the same in the second half. We finished the game with Lewis Grabban and Daryl Murphy up front and we started to play in the wrong way; we started to play long balls and we do not know how to play in that way.
"I do not know if it is difficult to retain the dominance we had in the first half for 90 minutes - but that is what we have to do. In the Championship, every single mistake you make is punished.
Preston North End manager Alex Neil said:
"We have now lost one game in 11 which is some going at this level. And we have still got four or five players out, players who are key figures. Ben Pearson is a talisman for us and Callum Robinson is our top scorer.
"We knew that if we went toe-to-toe with them, it would be a tough game. We had a plan in place, we wanted to be narrow and stop them playing in the pockets they like to occupy.
"I thought our gameplan worked very well. But it is one thing having a plan and it is another carrying it out. I thought the players carried it out to a tee."
PNE line-up: Rudd, Clarke ©, Hughes, Browne, Huntington, Davies, Barkhuizen, Gallagher, Moult (Ledson, 73), Johnson (Burke, 90), Barker (Nmecha, 25). Subs not used: Maxwell, Fisher, Storey, Woods.
Attendance: 27,777 (1,402 PNE fans)
Referee: Mr S Martin
It's an odd game having collapsed in a heap last week at Birmingham we pick up a win at Forest a week later and put in a performance that showed a team working for each other, this was a gritty performance againast a good Forest side who simply ran out of ideas.
Four changes from last week, Davies, Johnson and Clark returned from injury and Hughes returned instaed of the injured Earl at left back, looked a stronger side than last week also no change between the stick as Rudd kept his place.
Up against it for most of the first half as Forest came flying out of the traps, they were denied twice when players were through on goal by Rudd and the outstanding Davies, played some wonderful one touch football around our box but the final ball fell to no one on many occasions. Grabban went on one mazy run which should have brought a goal. Cash had a couple of efforts which went narrowly wide, however it was not all one way Barkhuizen had an effort cleared as it's made it's way to the goal, Nmecha failed to see Moult in acres of space.
One thing that helped was Barker getting injured he was replaced by Nmecha who put in a tremendous shift. Level at half time.
Forest on the front foot again at the start of the second period for the first time in four matches didn't concede in the first minute, weathered the early storm and then took the lead from our first corner, Nmecha got the ball near the byline in the second phase got towards the goal and fied across the face of the goal Moult antipated got in first goal(video underneath)
Could we survive yep, we did with in truth only one effort which caused Rudd to make a save and that was a header from Murphy late on, Ledson could have doubled the lead but Pantilimon got down to just about save. Bit hectic to the end but we held on and took three big points.
https://youtu.be/3Faohdkk_N4
Nottingham Forest manager Aitor Karanka said:
"I think the only thing we missed was scoring goals. In the first half in particular, we played really well and we should have been winning 2-0 or 3-0 by half time, if not by more.
"But we did not play the same in the second half. We finished the game with Lewis Grabban and Daryl Murphy up front and we started to play in the wrong way; we started to play long balls and we do not know how to play in that way.
"I do not know if it is difficult to retain the dominance we had in the first half for 90 minutes - but that is what we have to do. In the Championship, every single mistake you make is punished.
Preston North End manager Alex Neil said:
"We have now lost one game in 11 which is some going at this level. And we have still got four or five players out, players who are key figures. Ben Pearson is a talisman for us and Callum Robinson is our top scorer.
"We knew that if we went toe-to-toe with them, it would be a tough game. We had a plan in place, we wanted to be narrow and stop them playing in the pockets they like to occupy.
"I thought our gameplan worked very well. But it is one thing having a plan and it is another carrying it out. I thought the players carried it out to a tee."
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