Welcome to the Nottingham Forest v Newcastle United preview.
Sunday 10th May and a 2pm kick-off.
The Toon travel to Nottingham on Sunday to do battle with a Forest side reeling from a Europa League semi-final hammering on Thursday night.
Newcastle finally stopped the rot of five straight defeats last weekend with a well-deserved win over Brighton.
United hoping to add more points to the board at the end of a disappointing Premier League season.
Form
Newcastle have won two and lost four of their past six league matches. A well-deserved win away at Chelsea was followed by a catastrophic run of form that saw us lose consecutive matches to the Mackems, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Arsenal. Thankfully, that run was ended with a victory against Brighton last weekend. We’ve scored seven goals in this sequence and conceded eight.
Nottingham Forest are on an incredible run of Premier League form that has raised them above the bottom three. They’ve won four and drawn two of their past six matches. Wins have come against Chelsea, the Mackems, Burnley and Tottenham, whilst they’ve drawn with Fulham and Aston Villa. They’ve scored an impressive sixteen goals in these matches and conceded just three. The fourteen points has them sixteenth in the league and a win would see them leapfrog Newcastle on goal difference.
Last time out
The Toon returned to winning ways last weekend when hosting an in-form Brighton team. Things looked ominous when Brighton forced a good save and hit the bar in the first few minutes but great work from Bruno and Murphy set up an easy finish for Osula to score his third goal in four games. The Toon doubled their advantage soon after when Bruno whipped
a corner into the danger zone and Dan Burn powered home a header to make it 2-0. For the rest of the first half, United threatened to run riot as both Willock and Thiaw forced good saves from close range. The second half however was a much more nervy affair with Brighton scoring a well-worked goal, forcing a great save from Pope and missing a golden chance to equalise in the last minute. Thankfully the Toon were able to take advantage and counter-attack on three separate occasions. Firstly Wissa blazed over when he really should have scored, before Joelinton placed an effort just wide when the pass would have set-up an open goal. In the fifth minute of injury time however, Wissa forced a save from the ‘keeper that saw the ball fall to Harvey Barnes who showed good composure to fire into the roof of the net and seal a fine 3-1 victory for NUFC.
Nottingham Forest were in European action on Thursday night and hopeful of making the Europa League final having won the semi-final first leg against Aston Villa 1-0. The second leg however proved to be memorable for all the wrong reasons as Forest took an absolute battering from start to finish. Lucky to be only 1-0 down at half-time, three further Villa goals saw a comprehensive 4-0 defeat on the night as Villa cruised into the final with a 4-1 aggregate win.
Stat attack!
– The Toon have won their last four away matches against Nottingham Forest in all competitions.
-Newcastle have found the net in their past seven away games with Nottingham Forest.
-NUFC have never lost a Premier League match at the city ground and have won their last four.
Memorable match
In 1999, Ruud Gullit took his in-form Newcastle side to a Nottingham Forest team suffering a dreadful season and sliding towards an inevitable relegation. The travelling Toon Army were in celebratory mood having seen their team win the FA Cup quarter-final 4-1 (against Everton) just a few days earlier but anyone thinking three points would be easy pickings, were in for a ‘Ruud’ awakening as United really stuttered and struggled to get going during a disjointed first half. Forest had missed two golden opportunities and the Toon hadn’t even had a shot on target at the end of a first half when a corner was swung in and the referee gave NUFC a penalty that no one had even appealed for. Not to look a gifthorse in the mouth, Alan Shearer stepped up and fired United ahead. With the players looking forward to their half-time break, Nottingham Forest hit back immediately and Freedman looped home a header to level the scores. At the start of the second half, the referee handed Newcastle another lifeline when reducing the reds to ten men for serious foul play.
At the point, things looked like drifting towards a bore-draw but some matches are memorable for an individual moment of genius and this was provided by Didi Hamman. The German midfielder picked the ball up and unleashed a spectacular strike from full twenty-five yards to win the match. This was a goal good enough to win any game and the travelling Toon army were dreaming of a repeat in the upcoming FA Cup semi-final or even at the Wembley showpiece itself if they got there.
Nottingham Forest 1-2 Newcastle.
Played for both
Andy Cole – Kevin Keegan broke the club’s transfer record by splashing out £1.75 million for the striker in 1993. This is a number nine whose record stands up to anyone else’s – a whopping sixty-eight goals in eighty-four matches before being controversially sold to Man United in January 1995 for a British record transfer fee. Some fans were so angry at the sale that they turned up at the stadium demanding answers which Keegan provided, famously standing on the steps to explain his decision. King Kev would go on to sign both Sir Les and Alan Shearer as the entertainers came ‘so close’ to being champions of England for the first time since 1927 but that’s a story for another day. He ended his career by playing ten games for Forest in 2008 without finding the net.
Sammy Ameobi came through the ranks at NUFC before making his debut in 2011. He became the owner of a small piece of club history in 2013 when he and Shola became the first brothers to both score in a competitive Toon match (away at Morecambe in a 2-0 League Cup victory). He failed to establish himself as a regular starter for the Toon and had spells at Middlesbrough, Cardiff and Bolton before signing for Forest. He stayed at the City Ground for three seasons and scored eight league goals.
Daryl Murphy signed for Rafa Benitez in 2016 and despite being injured until January, scored some very important goals as we went on to win the Championship title on the last day of the season. Highlights of his time on Tyneside include scoring the winning goal away at Brentford and a crucial strike to put us 2-0 up away at Huddersfield. He signed for Nottingham Forest in 2017 and spent two years there, scoring eleven championship goals.
Managers
Eddie Howe after a 3-1 win against Brighton:
“It was always going to be a difficult game today, Brighton play very fluid, open, attractive football and we are not in that moment. We had to withstand a bit of pressure, ride our luck, but we were always a threat and scored a third. A couple of key saves from Nick Pope, the one early in the game was massive because you don’t want to be chasing the game against them with their style. The crowd were really good with us today, I am delighted for them. They’ve witnessed everything the last few weeks and have stayed with us and stayed loyal to the team. I thank them greatly. It’s been a horrible feeling for us for a number of weeks. We have been looking to change our fortunes. The attitude of the lads during this difficult run has been outstanding. We stayed together, trained well, and we got our reward today. Credit to the players for sticking together, staying united, behind the scenes they’ve been excellent. At times we rode a little bit of luck today, but I think we more than deserved that in the recent weeks.”
Vitor Pereira after a 4-0 defeat to Aston Villa in the Europa League semi-final:
“To compete in a semi-final and against a team like Aston Villa, we need everyone in the conditions to compete. If you look before the game, on the bench we had three players, because the other ones were injured. Playing against Chelsea and then travelling again to come here after three days, it was not possible. I’m very proud of our supporters, they tried on this long road to help us, but it was not possible. It is a pity but I am proud of my players because they tried everything. Today we were not at our level to compete for the semi-final.”
Charity
As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online.
Prediction
There’s no denying Forest have been on a great run of form recently and I think they’ve racked up enough points to alleviate any relegation fears. At the same time, they may also be fairly demoralised after a crushing European semi-final defeat on Thursday night. Newcastle have enjoyed some great results on this ground in recent years and I fancy that to continue this weekend. Forest 1-2 Toon.