Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Dean Henderson celebrated his side’s unlikely win over Liverpool by jumping into the home side’s fervent crowd.
The Manchester United loanee was one of the heroes for Steve Cooper’s side as Taiwo Awoniyi’s second-half strike earned them a famous 1-0 win at The City Ground. Henderson, who labelled his treatment at Old Trafford as “criminal”, opted to join the Garibaldi on a season-long loan in a bid for regular football.
And after starring in the midweek draw with Brighton, he was at it again to keep Liverpool at bay in the final minutes of a tense encounter. His first crucial save came when Trent Alexander-Arnold ghosted in at the back-post only to see his free header pawed away.
But that was only the preview to the main act as he made a stunning stop from a Virgil van Dijk header to ensure his side won all three points and moved off the bottom of the table.
His delight was clear to see at the full-time whistle as he hopped over the advertising boards behind the goal he protected to jump in with the Forest fans. Fellow United academy graduate Jesse Lingard also enjoyed the win over Jurgen Klopp’s team, dancing on the pitch amid wild scenes of celebration.
Klopp described the game as ‘Liverpool vs Henderson’ in his post-match debrief, lamenting his side’s inability to score from a host of set-piece chances. “It’s Premier League and they’re all good, all fight, but giving teams six clear chances, I’m not sure where I should put praise on,” Klopp told BT Sport.
“They’re a great team, Steve’s a fantastic manager, for us, we have to win here - done - but we didn’t. Credit to Nottingham, it was us against the goalkeeper, us against ourselves and not us against Nottingham Forest, nobody defended Bobby, Virg, we didn’t use it."
Henderson’s performance was arguably the best of his Forest career to date, having spoken in brutally honest terms about his situation with Manchester United. The 25-year-old looked to have won the starting job with the Red Devils, before losing it again to David De Gea, forced to sit on the bench for almost the entirety of last season.
He suggested that promises were broken by United bosses, with Erik ten Hag’s arrival doing little to curb his determination to leave the club during the transfer window.
"The conversation I had, coming out of the Euro squad, was that you're coming back here to be the number one goalkeeper,” he said after joining Forest. “I got Covid - unfortunately, no one followed through with anything they told me.
"I turned so many good loans down last summer, and they wouldn't let me go. It was frustrating. To sit there and waste 12 months is criminal really, at my age. I was fuming."
And while he enjoyed helping knock off United’s great rivals, in the summer he admitted that a win over his parent club would give him even more pleasure: “Facing Manchester United would excite me the most, but I can't play against them - that's me being honest, I'd love to go toe-to-toe with them,” he added.
