Newcastle 1 Nottingham Forest 3 – Things went from bad to worse

The Mag

·26 December 2023

Newcastle 1 Nottingham Forest 3 – Things went from bad to worse

Newcastle 1 Nottingham Forest 3 – Tuesday 26 December 12.30pm

A first-half performance in which we often looked stretched in midfield and defence, was a warning we were unable to heed.

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Isak took his penalty calmly after a ridiculously long wait for VAR confirmation.

Apart from a five-minute spell around the half-hour, our play was pedestrian, with the telltale arm waving from the men in possession seeking teammates in space while also moving forwards.

Forest wasted two or three good chances before their equaliser, which stemmed from Almiron misplacing a pass in the Forest box when we looked likely to double our lead rather than lose it.

Things almost went from bad to worse but Forest wasted three gilt-edged chances in the first five minutes of the second half.

Their passing and movement were sharper.

Inevitably, Wood scored his second soon after, bamboozling Burn before clipping past Dubravka, who made himself small rather than big.

Livramento and Wilson immediately replaced Burn and Almiron.

The personnel changed but the performance didn’t.

Gordon continued to misfire, Longstaff looked weak and Wood had his hat-trick before an hour had been gone. Trippier again struggling to defend or create, played him on (ED: Looked like Livramento to me…) and our ex did the rest, rounding Dubravka with his right foot and tucking the ball in with his left. It was a similarly accomplished finish to his second.

Isak and Miley went close while Forest still threatened.

On 71 minutes, Joelinton replaced Longstaff and we nearly scored a second from a superb Schar cross. Then Wilson was denied a decent penalty shout after more great work by Isak.

Murillo was running through our players almost at will in front of a near silent St James’ Park. Hall came on for Botman in our final change but there was still nothing to cheer.

By the final whistle, after six minutes of stoppages that included another goalbound effort by Isak that Turner saved and a blocked shot by Gordon, only the Forest fans were cheering.

Newcastle 1 Nottingham Forest 3 – Tuesday 26 December 12.30pm

Goals:

Isak 23 pen

Forest:

Wood 45+1, 53, 60

Possession was Forest 38% Newcastle 62%

Total shots were Forest 15 Newcastle 19

Shots on target were Forest 6 Newcastle 7

Corners were Forest 2 Newcastle 10

Referee: Chris Kavanagh

Attendance: 52,2072 (3,000 Forest)

Newcastle team v Forest: