Much was made of Eddie Howe’s suggestion last week that Newcastle’s record signing Alexander Isak was not yet ready for ninety minutes. Yet, with normal time having passed, there was Isak – who had earlier drawn Newcastle level with a technically superb strike – heading against Moussa Niakhate’s hands.
Up stepped the Swede, the boos booming around Nottingham. Cool, calm, and match winning. Six now for Isak in the equivalent of seven games.
Poor Emmanuel Dennis. He could easily have left Nottingham Forest in January but for the fact his European options were limited to a Watford return. His elaborate social media announcement garnered much attention but, even discarding that high-bar, Dennis’s impact has been limited. His beautiful first-half opener though, will have trended.
Eddie Howe and his bench jumped for joy. Three huge points in Newcastle’s Champions League chase. Steve Cooper was crestfallen. The concertina that is the relegation battle, makes three home points so valuable, especially for Forest.
It would be difficult to argue that unchanged Newcastle were not superior in the first half. They were slick, they were sharp and they twice struck the bar.
The first came from Kieran Trippier’s clever free-kick. While all waited for an aerial delivery, a smart daisy-cutter found Alexander Isak’s dart. The Swede’s strike was blocked by not one but three desperately committed Forest defenders. Renan Lodi was the last of those and it was off him that ball cannoned on to bar’s underside. Sean Longstaff too had a deflected effort smash the woodwork, this time after Felipe had thrown himself into the block.
But the sense was that Forest were not too worried. At times they rode their luck, with Road Runner-like Jacob Murphy showing just why he is a Howe favourite with his display down the right.
Steve Cooper had made a quartet of changes to name a forward-thinking line-up, one that could play on the break. The risk felt calculated: 20 of Forest’s 26 point’s before the match had been earned at the City Ground. And they had Brennan Johnson, the noise around him missing out proving just that.
A Johnson left-footed effort aside, they barely entered Newcastle territory, though. And then came Sven Botman’s horror moment.. He had shrugged off Andre Ayew and looked, as he so often has this season, to have all under control. But he had not spied Dennis’s run. Patience; feint; dinked finish. Beautiful Trent delirium.
Otherwise Forest’s most effective means was the wind-up, referee, Paul Tierney hardly helping. Quite how Jonjo Shelvey, who seemingly wanted to leave more than just a mental impression on his former teammates, escaped a booking for a series of niggly fouls was beyond Longstaff’s comprehension. Then again, quite how Dennis did see yellow having nicked ahead of Trippier and broken, was a question Cooper asked animatedly.
Ryan Yates and Joe Willock seemed intent on pushing each other’s buttons, the latter doubtless venting having missed his early shot at glory. Trippier had released Murphy and what followed was two parts perfection, one part shank. Murphy’s centre was precise; Willock’s arrival scheduled to the nanosecond; the finish? The less said, the better.
Willock’s smile returned in first-half stoppage time. His chipped cross found Isak who had drifted into a gap. The ball was just behind the forward but he was still able to shift his body and level via the post.
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The interval brought a Howe change, Allan Saint-Maximin having been present in name only for large chunks. With Miguel Almirón and Anthony Gordon both absent injured, Howe’s already threadbare squad is being tested. Amongst his options were four full-backs, and Elliot Anderson, the latest to have made the step up from Wallsend’s famed boys club.
Anderson breathed much needed class into the game. Within minutes, Anderson stood still, his eyes transfixed on Murphy’s high-cross. Only Keylor Navas’s palms prevented him giving Newcastle the lead. “Duh, duh, duh, Geordie Maradona” yelled the travellers.
Forest had a pair of efforts from Shelvey, who, having lurked ominously from a corner, saw one charged down before drilling the rebound wide. Within seconds he was booked for tugging Bruno Guimarães. The Brazilian shortly thereafter forced Navas into some acrobatics.
It was looking ominous for Forest, who looked to have fallen behind when Anderson rose to meet Isak’s ball. The celebrations had long since passed by the time the screen of doom, a pixelated Dementor sucking instant moments of joy from football, had risen. Tierney determined that Longstaff had been offside in a previous phrase, and, such was the noise, waves breached the Trent’s banks.
Forest could not take advantage. Newcastle’s prolificacy looked likely to cost them. Again. Then Isak intervened.
