After a pretty eventful January transfer deadline day for new manager Martin O’Neill and Nottingham Forest, it was time for attentions to turn back to the Championship campaign and today’s trip across the Midlands to face Birmingham City.
The hosts at St Andrew’s had the brighter start and took the advantage 13 minutes into the game and for a period it looked like the only thing fans would have to cheer was a few fresh faces making their debuts.
Unfortunately, that period lasted for Forest and with us unable to draw level a straight red card for Yoann Benalouane in stoppage-time sealed our fate and Che Adams tied the game up at 2-0 to secure all three points from the penalty spot just two minutes after we were reduced to ten men.
O’Neill will take the positives of an improved second half display but he’ll want a lot better than we managed in the opening 45.
Speaking to the BBC following the end of the match, O’Neill said of the performance on the day.
“Obviously I’m disappointed. I thought the second half belonged to us, we just failed to capitalise. I thought we’ve had good possession and a couple of shots that looked as if they were going to go into the net. I’m disappointed to lose a game that I don’t think we should have lost. Sometimes the final ball was not good enough, that’s something we really need to work on and we had nobody to finish those chances off. We’re just getting to know each other. We don’t want to drop out of the race, there’s lots of teams and lots of points still to play for.”
💬 A tough day at the office#NFFC manager Martin O'Neill says he must balance the need to find out more about his players with achieving results following the 2-0 defeat at @BCFC. https://t.co/GIQZqse1LL
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) February 2, 2019
