1 February 2025
Nott’m Forest 7 Brighton 0
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side were looking for a response to the humbling they suffered on the south coast last weekend as they welcomed Brighton to the City Ground. The hosts have their minds set on European qualification this season and needed to get back on track. Back on home turf, the Forest faithful were hoping to see their team get back to winning ways.
Danilo returned to the hosts’ line-up, making his first appearance since breaking his ankle on the opening day of the season. Forest looked to pile the pressure on the visitors from the outset and Gibbs-White was causing problems out wide. As he burst towards the penalty area, he looked to put a teasing ball across the six yard box.
Dunk looked to cut out the cross but could only turn it past his own keeper as the City Ground erupted. The Brighton skipper has a bit of a thing for own goals and is now second in the all-time Premier League stats, with only Richard Dunne ahead of him. More importantly, he had made this trip up north much more difficult for The Seagulls so early on in the match.
It was a strange start to the game as the visitors were not playing badly at all. Technically, the hosts were leading without having had a single shot on target. The one thing that was for sure was that Hurzeler’s team needed to find a way back into this game sooner rather than later. The next goal in this encounter seemed vital.
Gibbs-White lifted a brilliant pass over the defence for Wood to run onto. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, it was put behind for a corner. As the resulting cross came in, the Forest midfielder attacked it at the near post and his glancing header ended in the back of the net. It was already looking like a long way back into this game for Brighton.
Nobody will ever disagree with how important Gibbs-White is to this Forest side. He was pulling all the strings and played a sublime crossfield pass to Williams. The Welsh full-back cut inside onto his right foot and looked to get a shot away from the edge of the box. Verbruggen was well beaten but saw the effort clip the base of the post and go wide.
Things went from bad to worse for the visitors when Elanga picked out Wood at the back post. The big Kiwi striker rose to head home and give Forest a formidable lead. A subsequent VAR review put the goal in doubt but as Stockley Park tried to draw some straight lines, everyone had that excruciatingly painful wait. Finally, it was adjudged there was no offside.
Shortly before the break, Rutter played the ball forward to Welbeck. He unleashed a rasping shot from the edge of the box that thundered against the underside of the crossbar, hit the goal line and came back out into play. The Brighton players were sure it had gone in but the referee’s watch did not agree and for good reason.
After the interval, The Seagulls seemed to have more purpose going forward. Try as they might, they could just not create any clear-cut opportunities. There were appeals for a penalty when Welbeck went down in the box but it was blatantly obvious from the replay that he initiated the clash of heads between himself and Milenkovic.
Brighton’s will to go forward was playing into the hands of the hosts, who love to counter sides. Elanga got down the right wing and beat Dunk for pace before crossing from the byline. He laid it on a plate for Wood, who simply had to tap it into an unguarded net with Verbruggen stood at his near post. This game was done and dusted from the visitors’ perspective.
The Seagulls were struggling to cope with the attacking threat of Forest. From a corner for the hosts, Lamptey wrestled Gibbs-White to the ground. The referee immediately pointed to the penalty spot and Wood stepped up to send Verbruggen the wrong way as the striker bagged his hat-trick, along with a match ball in the process.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side had managed to heal their goal difference in the process after their trip to the Vitality Stadium. As they continued to press, Brighton could not clear their lines and Williams slotted home to add another for Forest. Wearing some sort of eye mask, the full-back wheeled away in celebration looking like he had just escaped from a practical exam in a chemistry lab.
This had turned into a real horror show for Brighton and things were soon to get worse. Verbruggen tried to pass it out from the back but gifted it to Silva. He threaded it past the keeper to make this an unbelievable scoreline. By this stage, you could just see the visitors wanted to pack up and head back to the south coast as soon as possible.
It was the perfect response from Forest after their mauling by Bournemouth the week before. There was always a danger of their bubble being burst last weekend but they had made a real statement with this victory. They now had a six point gap on their nearest challengers in the league table, which considering that is Man City, shows how well the season is going.
For Brighton, this was a match they will soon want to forget. They sit in mid-table in the Premier League and can still achieve a lot from the campaign. Sometimes these freak results happen, the benchmark for teams is how you react to these situations. It will certainly be the first real test of Fabian Hurzeler’s tenure as The Seagulls’ manager.
Did you enjoy this article? Please share to your social media. With one click you can help spread the word and make Solid at the Back the one-stop shop for all Premier League fans.