It is impossible to avoid the sense that something special is stirring on the banks of the Trent. Nottingham Forest averted a late scare to dispatch Southampton, move level on points with Arsenal in second place and extend their unbeaten run to eight Premier League matches.
Forest roared into a 3-0 lead inside 41 minutes but the visitors pulled a goal back via Jan Bednarek on the hour and then Paul Onuachu headed in his first Southampton goal at the start of second-half stoppage time to tee up a grandstand finish. A few minutes later Ola Aina cleared a Bednarek header off the line from another corner.
“We have been talking about how competitive this league is: you can’t ever, ever underestimate [an opponent] or think the game is over,” said the delighted Forest head coach, Nuno Espírito Santo. “It was a warning for everybody to realise this league is very tough.”
So Saints, who led for 82 minutes at Old Trafford before collapsing as Amad Diallo hit a hat-trick for Manchester United on Thursday, belatedly showed some guts though it is now five defeats from five under Ivan Juric. Nuno told how Aina, who played under Juric at Torino, gave him the lowdown on what to expect but few would have envisaged the finale that played out after a fourth Forest goal was disallowed by the referee, Anthony Taylor, following a VAR review. Aaron Ramsdale fumbled Nikola Milenkovic’s header into his own net but an offside Chris Wood, again on the scoresheet, was deemed to have been interfering with play.
For Forest, this was another clinical display, all three first-half shots on target resulting in goals, the first from Elliot Anderson, his first for the club, before Callum Hudson-Odoi and Wood provided a considerable buffer. Southampton offered little in attack but got a fortuitous consolation, Lesley Ugochukwu’s speculative, stray shot cannoning in off Bednarek, who had been at fault for Forest’s second, a tragicomedy from a Saints perspective.
Joe Aribo ventured towards halfway before Flynn Downes, who Ugochukwu replaced at the break, pushed a pass back to Bednarek. He sent the ball to Downes, who under pressure from Morgan Gibbs-White played it to James Bree, the right‑sided centre‑back, who promptly shifted possession to Bednarek to his left.
The ball bobbled off Bednarek’s right shin and with Wood lurking Bednarek flung himself to ground to prevent Hudson-Odoi seizing possession. Too late. Hudson-Odoi swivelled, pushed the ball out of his feet, picked his spot and buried a superb right-foot shot into the inside netting of Ramsdale’s goal.
For Southampton, ultimately this was another sorry episode in a demoralising season. Every defeat increases the likelihood that Saints, who have one league win all season, may not reach Derby’s record-low points tally of 11 in 2007-08. “When we play without intensity, we are really bad,” Juric said. “I am really disappointed that after a big match against Manchester United that we played the first half at this level. Against United for the first time I felt like it was my team in the first 80 minutes. When we are like this, we are competitive.”
Juric was so angered by the manner of Forest’s first goal that, while Anderson was mobbed by his teammates, the Croat charged on to the pitch to vent fury at his players before chucking a water bottle to the floor in frustration. Gibbs-White expertly used Downes as a mannequin, flicking Neco Williams’s throw-in round the corner of the Southampton midfielder, from there Anderson drove forward unchallenged and potted the ball low into the bottom corner.
It seemed as though Forest were out of sight when Wood scored a brilliant header from close to the penalty spot, steering in Aina’s cross from the right, but they were not so assured once Ugochukwu’s shot from the edge of the area diverted in off Bednarek’s boot. Forest dug into the reserves to eke out a draw against Liverpool in midweek so perhaps it was no surprise they dwindled. At the same time Saints, without Tyler Dibling who could miss six weeks because of an ankle problem, had 48 hours fewer to prepare for this match.
Ten minutes into the second half Bednarek cleared a Gibbs-White shot off the line at the end of a slick Forest move but the 12 in added time proved even hairier for the hosts, Forest clinging on after Onuachu lost his marker, Morato, to glance in at the front post. Soon afterwards Aina prevented an improbable Saints equaliser, hooking a Bednarek header off the line with his right boot.
“Aina is like a son for me because we had a really good relationship at Torino,” Juric said. “We worked hard [together] and he is a great guy. He set up a goal and had a really good game. He is an incredible player for the Premier League, fast, with energy.”
Though Forest faded, Murillo stormed into the opposition box in an attempt to kill the game with the last action of a crazy match.
