Forest’s 10 men hold on against Brentford as Domínguez claims point
Nottingham Forest 1 Brentford 1
Nottingham Forest and Brentford managed to condense an entire match into nine entertaining second-half minutes at the City Ground. For almost an hour nothing happened until Moussa Niakhaté was sent off before Christian Norgaard and Nicolás Domínguez exchanged headers.
It was not one for the purists, with neither goalkeeper made to work particularly hard to keep the score down. Forest will be pleased that their new signings are looking to settle quickly, while Brentford showed marked improvement after the break to appease Thomas Frank as they ended a fifth match without a win.
Steve Cooper left Morgan Gibbs-White out of the team, leaving the attacking emphasis to the pace and skill of wingers Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi. The former Manchester United man showed his threat after 60 seconds when he got the wrong side of full-back Aaron Hickey, forcing him to pull him back in exchange for a booking to leave the Brentford defender in a worrying position for the remaining 89 minutes.
Taiwo Awoniyi put the ball in the back of the net after poking home a Willy Boly flick on at a corner. The assistant referee quickly spotted the striker was offside and VAR did not disagree, even knowing what the original decision was and the goal was rightly disallowed but it was a sign of the danger offered by Awoniyi inside the box.
Forest had 21-year-old Murillo, although the kitman added an extra R to his shirt, making his debut at centre-back. The Brazilian looked happy with the ball at his feet and could read dangerous situations perfectly, to give the impression of another promising new arrival.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim Sangaré was showing why Forest spent two summers convincing him to join. In his first
Read on irishexaminer.com
