Vitor Pereira remains on the lookout for his first league win in charge of Nottingham Forest after his side fell to a 2-1 defeat against Brighton.
A frantic opening 15 minutes saw all three goals, with Diego Gomez and Danny Welbeck scoring either side of a Morgan Gibbs-White beauty to secure the three points for the Seagulls.
With Burnley, West Ham and Tottenham all losing this weekend, the defeat meant that Forest failed to make any headway on their relegation rivals, with just 10 games left in the Premier League campaign.
Having ended a run of six games without a win against Brentford last time out, Fabian Hurzeler’s men emerged full of confidence and came flying out of the traps. Their early dominance paid off as Gomez perfectly cut across the ball from the corner of the penalty area to arrow one inside the far post for a deserved lead.
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‘Magnificent’ Diego Gomez volley fires Brighton in front against Nottingham Forest!
That appeared to wake Forest up, as they responded in some style. Igor Jesus’s immaculate dummy on the far side unlocked the Brighton defence before he found Gibbs-White, who expertly curled home from distance past Bart Verbruggen.
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Gibbs-White scores dazzling equaliser for Nottingham Forest against Brighton in the Premier League
Any hope Pereira may have had of that inspiring his side quickly diminished though, as within two minutes Welbeck added his 11th goal of the season to restore the hosts’ advantage.
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Danny Welbeck’s strike sees Brighton back into the lead against Nottingham Forest in their Premier League clash!
Brighton continued to push for a third, but were unable to get past Matz Sels, offering the visitors a chance to make the most of several dangerous counter-attacks.
However, the equaliser eluded Pereira’s men, meaning that Forest have managed just one goal from 66 attempts over their last three Premier League games.
Forest remain 17th in the Premier League, failing to leapfrog Tottenham, who fell to defeat at Fulham. Meanwhile, Brighton edge closer to the top half as their second consecutive win means they climb to 11th.
Gibbs-White: We need to look ourselves
Nottingham Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White speaking to Sky Sports:
“It’s frustrating. We can’t start games like this. We need to seriously look at ourselves in the mirror and realise the situation that we’re in and step up for the club, for the fans, for everyone involved, for ourselves. It wasn’t good enough.
Morgan Gibbs-White claimed Nottingham Forest players needed to ‘look at themselves’ following their defeat to Brighton
“And then, obviously, a difficult first half, and then we showed a reaction in the second half. We come out fighting. We come out with the desire to try and win, and unfortunately, we just couldn’t get the extra goal.
“I’d love to give you a reason right now, but I’m sure in the next couple of days we’ll do some, do some analysis of the game and realise what went wrong.
“But I just think that we weren’t really switched on from the first whistle, we can see that in my eyes, two sloppy goals.
“So yeah, obviously we created a few chances. Could have scored more, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t our day, so we’ve got to go back to the drawing board now, as I said, look at ourselves in the mirror and go again, because we’re in a tough situation at the minute, and we need to get out of it.”
Pereira: Tiredness is not an excuse
Nottingham Forest boss Vitor Pereira speaking to Sky Sports:
“The tiredness is not only physical, it’s mental too, because you need, you need to recover, but this is what we have.
“We cannot excuse ourselves with the Europa League, because we are there.
“We are there competing, and we have the calendar to play each three days.
“We need to be ready to prepare for the next game and to face this kind of calendar.”
‘Inspiring’ Milner can do one more year
Brighton striker Danny Welbeck speaking with Sky Sports on James Milner after 2-1 in over Nottingham Forest:
“Honestly, it’s a privilege. Every single day, coming to training, coming to the work environment and seeing Milly at his best.
Danny Welbeck believes James Milner has shown he is still capable of producing at the highest level
“He’s at home there and every single thing that he does, he sets a standard and it rubs off onto everybody around him. Not just the lads, but the staff. Every single one at the football club. I think having him here, people do not understand the level of impact that he has.
“He’s not played as much this season, but the last two performances have shown the levels that he can produce on the pitch. Everyone’s buzzing for him. He’s had an incredible achievement last week and he’s going again. It’s like, ‘one more year, one more year.’
“Honestly, what he does for us every single day is incredible and I couldn’t ask for a better inspiration.”
Forest well and truly have a goalscoring problem
Analysis from Sky Sports’ Callum Bishop:
“66 shots across the last three games from Nottingham Forest. One goal. One point. That sums up their struggles towards the bottom of the Premier League table.
“Vitor Pereira’s didn’t lacked chances today. They had more than enough to take something from the game. But they lacked the clinical edge needed.
“Last year, Chris Wood finished with 20 Premier League goals, the fourth highest in the league. This term, Forest’s best player in the league is Morgan Gibbs-White with seven.
“In fact, their top seven scorers haven’t even equalled what Wood alone managed last season. It’s abundantly clear what the big problem is, but with just 10 games to go, there isn’t long to rectify it.”
