That’s all from me. I’ll leave you with Sam Dalling’s report from the City Ground – goodnight.
Here’s the winning goal
"BIG moment, BIG penalty!" 🎯🔳
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 17, 2023
Alexander Isak sends the away end WILD! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/8CiJQqvVsH
This is what it means at the top of the Premier League. Newcastle’s next game is a humdinger: Manchester United at home.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 27 | 37 | 66 |
| 2 | Man City | 27 | 42 | 61 |
| 3 | Man Utd | 26 | 6 | 50 |
| 4 | Tottenham Hotspur | 27 | 12 | 48 |
| 5 | Newcastle | 26 | 20 | 47 |
Full time: Nottm Forest 1-2 Newcastle
Newcastle’s season is back on track. After two months without a Premier League victory, they have won twice in six days. The brilliant Alexander Isak scored both goals after Emmanuel Dennis had put Forest ahead with a delicious chip. The first half was pretty even; the second was all Newcastle.
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90+5 min Renan Lodi is booked for pulling back Isak. “He is very, very sharp,” says Jamie Carragher on commentary, with a mixture of admiration and relief that he didn’t have to play against somebody as dynamic as Isak.
Isak waits for Navas to move and sidefoots a nonchalant penalty into the net. It’s his second goal of the game, his third of the week; he has been magnificent.
Updated
GOAL! Nottm Forest 1-2 Newcastle (Isak 90+3 pen)
Newcastle Football Club has a new hero.
Hang on, Isak is taking it – Trippier was the decoy man.
90+3 min Navas and Shelvey are booked for playing silly buggers.
Kieran Trippier will take the penalty…
PENALTY TO NEWCASTLE!
Isak’s header hits the raised arm of Niakhate, who puts his head in his hands even before Paul Tierney has pointed to the spot.
Updated
90 min Six minutes of added time.
89 min Aurier marches forward and plays in Gibbs-White, whose cross is taken away from Surridge by the stretching Pope. That was a vital touch.
87 min: Chances at both ends! Felipe makes a terrific block to deny Guimaraes after some excellent play from Newcastle on the right. Forest break in trademark style, and Johnson’s crisp low shot is kicked away well by Pope.
Updated
86 min Isak has had such a good game. The last six days feel like an important breakthrough in his Newcastle career.
Updated
84 min: Newcastle substitution Matt Ritchie replaces Jacob Murphy.
84 min: Chance for Newcastle! Longstaff stumbles into the area and finds Isak, whose left-footed shot on the stretch is blocked in the six-yard box by Aurier! I’m not sure Navas would have saved that.
82 min “I’m a Newcastle fan but also a supporter of VAR,” says John Davis. “The issue there was that a Forest defender deliberately cleared the ball which went towards Longstaff. Another Forest defender then deliberately played the ball off Longstaff (who didn’t attempt to play the ball?).
“Given some of the attempts to cut out through balls which deflect and then have resulted in players making through runs then being ruled onside again, that one feels really inconsistent. Compared to the Mo Salah goal a month or so ago, that was in a different dimension. I don’t like to criticise refs, I think VAR has brought more ‘correct’ decisions but that just felt wrong under current guidance.”
80 min: Chance for Murphy! Trippier’s angled cross is headed back across goal by Anderson. A couple of Forest players leave it to each other, and Murphy hooks the bouncing ball wide from 12 yards with his left foot. Decent chance, that.
Updated
80 min “That decision is a perfect example of why VAR should be abolished,” says Rupert Downing. “No one other than the VAR referee understands it, which makes it ridiculous for everyone else. This is no longer a real sport. Bring on the robots.”
79 min: Double substitution for Forest Sam Surridge and Neco Williams replace Andre Ayew, who played pretty well, and the goalscorer Emmanuel Dennis. Williams is playing left wing.
76 min “I am a biased Forest fan but the offside Newcastle player prevented the defender simply putting it out for a corner or throw,” says Phil Hull. “Had to turn it back into box due to offside player.”
Doesn’t it count as a different phase of play once the cross is blocked? I’ll be honest, I haven’t a clue any more.
75 min Forest have had a couple of promising attacks in the last two or three minutes. I don’t think this will finish 1-1.
73 min “Fair point on Big Sam,” says Tom Stratford. “One particular bit of the early period Allardyce I miss is how he’d start games on the headset in the stands and then you knew it was business time when Sam chose to descend to the Reebok touchline. And if it makes you feel any better I actually found myself feeling slightly sorry for Eden Hazard earlier, so am clearly also going soft on the banter front with age!”
Empathy gets us all in the end. That and old age.
72 min Isak, who has been electric, combines beautifully with Guimaraes before Felipe makes an important challenge in the area. Then Anderson hammers a ball across the six-yard box that is cleared by Renan Lodi.
Updated
71 min Anyway, the shot must go on, and Newcastle are still pushing for a winner. They’ll be fuming if they lose this, for all kinds of reasons.
69 min Longstaff was in an offside position on the right of the area when somebody else, Isak I think, slid the ball across goal. It was blocked, and then another Forest defender booted the ball off Longstaff. It ricocheted to Isak, whose cross was headed in by Anderson.
Updated
NO GOAL! Nottm Forest 1-1 Newcastle
VAR: killing dreams since 2018. The greatest moment of Elliot Anderson’s young life is overturned by some fella in an airless bunker. It’s a correct if pedantic decision, I think, but I keep coming back to the question Kenny Cunningham asked so succinctly on the Off the Ball podcast: has VAR improved football as a spectacle?
Updated
Paul Tierney is going to the monitor. The issue is whether Longstaff, who was in an offside position at one stage, was interfering or whether it counts as a different phase of play. I think this will be disallowed.
Updated
Anderson has been brilliant since coming on, full of purpose and intent, and now he has put Newcastle ahead. An attack broke down on the right of the area, but Isak collected the loose ball and teased a left-footed cross beyond the far post. Anderson got above Aurier and forced a superb header back across Navas.
Hang on, it’s being checked by VAR.
Updated
GOAL! Nottm Forest 1-2 Newcastle (Anderson 64)
Too late: Elliot Anderson, 20, has put Newcastle ahead with his first senior goal!
Updated
63 min Newcastle have been much the better team since half-time, and Steve Cooper must be considering a switch to the usual 4-3-2-1.
62 min “Considering how both these teams were performing at the start of the season, that 1-1 is a fair scoreline at halftime is a testament to Steve Cooper’s incredible skill as a manager,” writes Kári Tulinius. “Meanwhile, Newcastle are a bit less taut than they were before the World Cup, but the funds to purchase a player of Isak’s quality will paper over most cracks.”
I’ve been impressed with Newcastle tonight, particularly their passing in tight areas around the edge of the Forest area. Whatever happens between now and the end of May, Eddie Howe has done such a good job with what is still, at this stage, no more than an upper mid-table squad.
61 min Willock cuts inside from the right and pokes a pass into Guimaraes on the edge of the area. He slashes a rising drive that is pushed over by the leaping Navas, another dramatic but relatively comfortable save. The resulting corner is cleared to the edge of the area, where Anderson shoots over. He’s been really lively since coming on.
Updated
60 min Murphy slides a nice ball towards Anderson, who is through on goal… and then slips over. Dumb luck for Newcastle.
59 min Gibbs-White is booked for a cynical pull on Bruno Guimaraes.
59 min: Just wide from Shelvey! Gibbs-White’s corner is headed away to the edge of the area. Shelvey cracks an impatient volley that hits Isak and loops back to Shelvey, who controls the ball on the chest and drags a shot not far wide. Pope had it covered though.
58 min: Forest substitution Ryan Yates is going off with a shoulder problem. Remo Freuler replaces him.
57 min A lovely deft touch from Ayew releases Dennis, who takes a poor touch but still manages to win a corner.
57 min “Happy St. Patrick’s Day one and all!” says Nora Mulcahy, a sentiment I’ll heartily second. Hic.
Updated
55 min A rare Forest counter-attack (in the second half) ends when Gibbs-White overhits a cross. He’s been quiet tonight.
54 min “So with the entire MotD team and now potentially also a 75-year Roy Hodgson going back to work, do we have to acknowledge Jeremy Hunt’s absolutely smashed the theme of this year’s budget?” says Tom Stratford. “Someone will be putting down their pint of wine and getting a plane back from Malaga at this rate…”
It always makes me a bit sad that Sam Allardyce – who was such a progressive manager at the start of his career, and overachieved at pretty much every club he managed – was sacrificed at the altar of banter. I’m going soft in my old age, I know. Fifteen years ago I was the Bishop of Bantersaurus, or whatever the eff.
52 min A minute or so before that Anderson volley, Felipe had a handful of his shirt in the area. Technically, I suppose that could have been a penalty to Newcastle.
51 min Newcastle are all over Forest like a cheap cliche. One corner leads to another, which eventually leads to Willock curling over from the left edge of the area.
49 min: Good save from Navas! Murphy, on the right, floats a nothing cross beyond the far post. The substitute Anderson meets it with a sweet, sidefooted volley that is pushed over dramatically by Navas. It was a comfortable enough save for a keeper of his class, but Anderson’s technique was outstanding.
Updated
46 min Peep peep! Newcastle begin the second half, having made a half-time change: Elliot Anderson for Allan Saint-Maximin.
Half time: Nottm Forest 1-1 Newcastle
Two outstanding goals, a fair scoreline, some fruity tackles: what’s not to love?
What a FINISH this was from Emmanuel Dennis 🥶 pic.twitter.com/KrvkJZPMSz
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 17, 2023
"It's a brilliantly improvised finish" 👌
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 17, 2023
Isak equalises for Newcastle! pic.twitter.com/SDgklBDJMx
Updated
This is a brilliant finish from Isak, who is so damn hot right now. Schar and Saint-Maximin combined well on the right to release Willock, who lifted a cross towards the unmarked Isak at the far post. The ball was slightly behind Isak, who improvised beautifully. With both feet off the ground, he whirled his right foot around the ball to force a volley back across goal and into the net via the post.
Updated
GOAL! Nottm Forest 1-1 Newcastle (Isak 45+2)
Alexander Isak equalises on the stroke of half time!
45 min There will be three minutes of added time.
43 min A clash of heads between Ayew and Guimaraes leads to a break in play while they receive treatment. I think they’re fine.
41 min Felipe sprays a pass over the top to Ayew, who looks miles offside but is allowed to continue. Trippier gets back to make a robust challenge, just in case, and then the flag goes up. Replays show Ayew was offside, though not by much.
Updated
39 min “Have to say,” says Peter Turnbull, “Forest need a calming yellow card.”
I think Dennis was booked for his goal celebration, though I appreciate that’s not the point you’re making. Ayew and Shelvey should have been booked.
38 min Longstaff lifts a really clever pass into the area for Murphy, whose shot is blocked. Moments later, Longstaff belts over from distance.
35 min: Longstaff hits the bar! Murphy muscles Renan Lodi off the ball, just outside the area on the Newcastle right, and slides the ball back to the edge of the area. Longstaff collects and sidefoots a shot that hits Felipe, loops over Navas and hits the crossbar!
Updated
34 min Shelvey flips a terrific pass into Yates, who can’t control it on the edge of the area. Had he done so, Forest might have been in again.
33 min Dan Burn is booked for dissent. Misplaced dissent at that, because replays show the decision he complained about was correct.
32 min “I cannot let your comment about Roy Hodgson pass unchallenged,” says Richard Hirst. “He will always have an honoured place in the Fulham pantheon (no sniggering from the cheap seats) - a legend, and a gentleman.”
He was great at Fulham, no doubt, but the thought of him replacing Vieira is just weird.
30 min Shelvey gets a final warning for a scissor tackle on Guimaraes. He did get the ball but that’s not particularly relevant with a challenge like that, and like Ayew earlier he should have been booked. Forest have been very physical in the first half hour.
28 min That was such a good goal.
It was a delightful, insouciant finish from Dennis. Shelvey’s long ball forward was collected by Botman, who then played a blind backpass. Dennis read it and collected the ball just ahead of Pope in the area. He moved the ball to the side and then, without looking up, floated the most delicate angled chip that drifted over Pope, Botman and finally Trippier on the line. You don’t need the Inspiral Carpets to tell you how cool that was.
Updated
GOAL! Nottm Forest 1-0 Newcastle (Dennis 26)
Emmanuel Dennis scores after a howler from Sven Botman!
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24 min “Don’t worry, Chris Paraskevas, Shelvey is already a legend,” says Matt Dony. “There was the time he offered Sir Alex outside for a square go, that was impressive enough. Or the time when, playing for Swansea against Liverpool, he scored one and set up three in a 2-2 draw. For a decent but limited footballer, his entertainment potential is off the charts. If he can bring any of that fun to the City Ground, you’ll definitely be talking about him for years to come.”
That set-to with Ferguson, a man 51 years older his senior, was quite magnificent.
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22 min “BBC are reporting that Roy Hodgson is in the running to replace Vieira at Palace,” says Simon McMahon. “At least football, much like the American electorate, can’t be accused of ageism.”
Rank stupidity, maybe, but not ageism.
22 min Dennis is booked for a foul on Trippier. Forest are fuming because they would have had a really promising counter-attack.
20 min Right, sorry about that; I think everything’s okay now. You haven’t missed much.
18 min Apologies, we’re having technical problems here. It’s still 0-0.
12 min: Lodi hits his own bar! Newcastle worked a brilliant free-kick, not unlike Wout Weghorst’s goal against Argentina at the World Cup. Trippier shaped to cross and instead slid the ball into the unmarked Isak in the area. He took a touch and slid a shot across goal that took two deflections and was sliced against his own bar by Lodi!
Updated
11 min Newcastle are starting to take control of the game, and Shelvey commits a silly foul on Guimaraes 22 yards from goal. It’s probably too wide for a shot, so Trippier will flip it into the middle.
10 min Now Botman is feeling his right ankle after a heavy challenge, I think from Ayew. On the plus side for Newcastle, Schar seems fine.
9 min Yates and Willock have a row about nothing. That could develop, because Yates also booted Willock a couple of minutes ago.
6 min: Great chance for Willock! Newcastle should be ahead. Trippier played a penetrative straight pass to release Murphy on the right side of the area. He slid a fast low cross towards the far post, where Willock, arriving late, sliced the ball wide with his left foot from six yards. That was a really good chance.
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5 min Schar wants to continue, but he’s moving pretty gingerly.
3 min Ayew takes Schar out with a well-intentioned but thoroughly inept hack. Schar twisted his left ankle and might be in trouble here. Ayew is very lucky to avoid a yellow card for that.
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3 min A slow start, nothing to report.
2 min Johnson has started on the right for Forest, with Andre Ayew as the No9.
1 min Peep peep! Forest’s main man, Brennan Johnson, gets the game under way.
“G’day again Rob (at the very reasonable K.O. time of 7am),” writes Chris Paraskevas. “My old man’s generation speak of Clough/Taylor’s Forest team with reverence and awe. In 20 years’ time, will I speak with the same reverence about Jonjo Shelvey’s re-interpretation of the holding midfield role? Probably not... but knowing our luck he’ll score a hat-trick against us! At least Henri Lansbury isn’t playing...”
A reminder of the teams, who are about to walk onto the field
Nottingham Forest (possible 4-2-3-1) Navas; Aurier, Felipe, Niakhate, Lodi; Yates, Shelvey; Johnson, Gibbs-White, Dennis; Ayew.
Substitutes: Hennessey, Worrall, Williams, Colback, Toffolo, Surridge, Freuler, Danilo, Scarpa.
Newcastle United (4-3-3) Pope; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Longstaff, Guimaraes, Willock; Murphy, Isak, Saint-Maximin.
Substitutes: Dubravka, Dummett, Lascelles, Wilson, Ritchie, Lewis, Targett, Manquillo, Anderson.
Referee Paul Tierney.
Updated
“Hi Rob!” says Joe Pearson. “Writing from the Midwest, where we are beset by overlapping basketball games all day and most of the night, thanks to the behemoth that is the NCAA Tournament.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love the First Round. But it’s just that after a day and a half of wall to wall basketball, I need a break. So a calming display of association football is just what the doctor ordered. Of course, a chaotic pitch invasion would be a change of pace as well. Just saying.”
Pre-match music
This is well worth watching, and not only to see a barnstorming cover-drive from Jamie Carragher.
This is TOP content 🤣@Carra23 and @GNev2 take on @StuartBroad8's cricket challenge! 🏏 pic.twitter.com/Pv3ydU04ec
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 17, 2023
Updated
A win tonight would move Forest up to 12th. Newcastle will stay fifth whatever happens, though they can close the gap on both Spurs and Manchester United.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Tottenham Hotspur | 27 | 12 | 48 |
| 5 | Newcastle | 25 | 19 | 44 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 26 | 18 | 42 |
| 13 | Wolverhampton | 27 | -17 | 27 |
| 14 | Nottm Forest | 26 | -26 | 26 |
| 15 | Everton | 27 | -18 | 25 |
"We're prepared, hopefully we can come out on top" 😤
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 17, 2023
Jonjo Shelvey says he feels 'ready' to face his former side 💪 pic.twitter.com/WVqnSufD3n
Remember when
Everyone remember Kevin Keegan’s loss of noggin at Leeds in May 1996, but Newcastle’s game at Forest three days later was even more significant in the title race.
From the archive
Newcastle 4-3 Nottm Forest (match void), FA Cup quarter-final, 9 March 1974
Another famous atmosphere in the north-east, for slightly different reasons. If you thought the sight of generously proportioned Newcastle fans with their belly buttons on show was exclusive to the sophisticatedly affluent Premier League, you were wrong. When Newcastle went 3-1 down, and were reduced to 10 men, against second division Nottingham Forest, a riot started because of what the Observer described as the “chubby strivings” of one particularly magisterial specimen of masculinity. The picture is painted beautifully in Paul Fitzpatrick’s Guardian report:
Only a spark was needed to set alight combustible feelings, and a balding middle-aged looking pugilist provided it. His paunch exposed, his shirt flying, this heavyweight bare-knuckle fighter set his arms flailing like a windmill and at least five policemen were needed to cool his ardour and pin him to the muddy turf. But the damage had been done and the crowd went haring down the pitch to the Gallowgate end.
If this bedraggled champion – with his mad-professor hair and top barely reaching halfway down his protruding stomach as he was led off by the police towards the mother of all hangovers – was comedy gold, what followed certainly wasn’t. There were 39 arrests and 25 people were taken to hospital, two with fractured skulls. Forest’s Dave Serella was punched in the face. The police let the dogs out and the referee took the players off for eight minutes; when they returned, Forest, playing with all the freedom of men with a Messerschmitt up their arse, surrendered feebly. Despite being two goals and one man down, Newcastle recovered to win 4-3.
Even allowing for Forest’s understandable subservience, however, it was astonishing stuff from Newcastle. The Observer said they played with “inextinguishable fervour” amid a “shattering pandemonium”. Bobby Moncur scored a palpably offside winner in the last minute; the linesman, it was said, feared being “lynched” if he raised his flag.
After dithering over a few 15-course buffets, the FA eventually ordered the game to be replayed at Goodison Park. That was drawn 0-0, but Newcastle went through with a 1-0 win in the replay of the replay, also at Goodison. They went all the way to the final, where, in the words of David Coleman’s commentary, they were “absolutely stripped naked” by Liverpool. But they would almost certainly not have got that far were it not for those chubby strivings two months earlier.
Up to eleven
Team news: Brennan Johnson starts
A big boost for Forest, whose talisman Brennan Johnson has recovered from a groin injury and will start the game.
There are four changes from the defeat at Spurs last week, and a possible switch to 4-2-3-1. Moussa Niakhate, Ryan Yates, Emmanuel Dennis and Andre Ayew replace Joe Worrall, Remo Freuler, Orel Mangala and Jesse Lingard.
Newcastle are unchanged, but Miguel Almiron – who came off the bench to score the winner against Wolves – is out with a thigh injury. Anthony Gordon is also injured.
Nottingham Forest (possible 4-2-3-1) Navas; Aurier, Felipe, Niakhate, Lodi; Yates, Shelvey; Johnson, Gibbs-White, Dennis; Ayew.
Substitutes: Hennessey, Worrall, Williams, Colback, Toffolo, Surridge, Freuler, Danilo, Scarpa.
Newcastle United (4-3-3) Pope; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Longstaff, Guimaraes, Willock; Murphy, Isak, Saint-Maximin.
Substitutes: Dubravka, Dummett, Lascelles, Wilson, Ritchie, Lewis, Targett, Manquillo, Anderson.
Referee Paul Tierney.
Updated
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Nottingham Forest v Newcastle United at the City Ground. When these two met on the opening weekend of the season, they’d have munched your paw off had you offered them 14th and fifth place respectively ahead of the return fixture. But there’s always a but, and here it is.
Forest, four places but only two points above the please-don’t-call-it-the-drop-zone, are still embroiled in a fight for survival. And Newcastle, though ahead of their world-domination schedule, would be in an even better position to qualify for the Champions League were it not for the two-month hibernation that ended with victory over Wolves last Sunday.
Still, both are in reasonable shape as they prepare for the final push after the international break. If Forest maintain their outstanding home form – 17 points from the last nine games – they will stay up, while Newcastle have games in hand on fourth-placed Spurs and are in control of their own destiny.
Yes, that is the MBM cliche klaxon you can hear. ‘In control of their own destiny’ FFS. What happened to this thing?
Kick off 8pm
