22 September 2024
Brighton 2 Nott’m Forest 2
The Seagulls welcomed Nott’m Forest to the Amex Stadium with both teams looking to protect their unbeaten starts they had made to the season. Fabian Hurzeler had even won the manager of the month award for his exploits in August. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side also had an impressive win at Anfield on their CV for the campaign so far.
Brighton made a good start to the game as they looked to pass the ball around in tight spaces. Adingra received it in the penalty area and played a teasing cross along the six yard box. Sadly for Hurzeler’s side, nobody could react quickly enough to get a telling touch to put it in the back of the net. Despite this, it got the home crowd going.
Gibbs-White then broke down the right wing. As he headed towards the byline, he cut the ball back towards Hudson-Odoi in the middle. The winger was then bundled over by Baleba and the referee immediately pointed towards the spot. Brighton’s fans could not believe it had been given but the replay showed it was the correct decision. It was clumsy by The Seagulls’ midfielder.
Wood stepped up and drilled his penalty into the bottom corner, sending the keeper the wrong way. The former Brighton player had come back to haunt his old club once again. It was a great start by the visitors and showed their intent to come here and win this game. The hosts now had it all to do if they were to remain unbeaten.
Just before the interval van Hecke crossed the ball to pick out Hinshelwood in the box. He met it with a bullet-like header that flew into the top corner and the Amex Stadium erupted. Hurzeler’s side had been knocking on the door but this really came out of nowhere. With the wind in their sails, the hosts looked to pile on the pressure.
There was enough time for another attack from the hosts. Mitoma had his heels clipped by Aina and the referee awarded a free kick just outside the box. Welbeck stepped up to take it and bent his effort into the bottom corner to turn the game on its head. Nott’m Forest looked stunned and Sels could only be a spectator for the goal.
After the interval Brighton continued to press. Mitoma was causing no end of the problems for Forest and he played it into the feet of Welbeck in the box. He wove his way through the defence before looking to slot it in the bottom corner. A last-ditch challenge saw the shot deflect narrowly wide for a corner. What a goal that would have been.
Nuno Espirito Santo felt at this stage he needed to freshen things up so made some changes. As The Seagulls looked to break, Gibbs-White was booked for pulling Rutter to ground. No complaints from the Forest skipper on that one. It was a professional foul intent on preventing Brighton hurting them on the counter-attack.
Some great one-touch football from the visitors saw Gibbs-White thread the ball through to Silva. He ran inside the box before squaring it to Sosa to tap home and equalise. It was a fantastic goal by the visitors, leaving Brighton dumbstruck with how easily they played through them. With twenty minutes remaining, Forest felt this game was there for the taking.
Moments later Gibbs-White put in a heavy challenge on Pedro. While the Forest skipper won the ball, he also took a lot of the man. Initially the referee seemed like he was going to take no action. Then he changed his mind, possibly after advice from the fourth official. He brandished a second yellow card and sent the Nott’m Forest player off.
Then came a mad few minutes as both Nuno Espirito-Santa and Fabian Hurzeler were both sent off by the referee. The Forest manager was sent to the stands for his remonstrations about the red card. The Brighton manager seemed to have some words for Gibbs-White as he left the field. It left both sides’ assistant managers giving post-match press conferences that they had not planned for.
Despite all this drama, Nott’m Forest had a huge chance to win the game. Sosa was played into space and ran towards goal. He had Silva in support at the back post but then hit the ball forward in between the player and the goal. It seemed he was in two minds whether to shoot or pass and in the end, it turned into neither. Chance wasted.
Brighton and Nott’m Forest were to share the spoils and, more importantly, kept their unbeaten starts intact. No doubt the visitors will appeal Gibbs-White’s red card but that will not get overturned and he will be sorely missed in their next game. Add to that both teams will not have their manager on the touchline for their respective games against Chelsea and Fulham.
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