Forest 1-0 Spurs | Ange's verdict

Ange Postecoglou felt we had the chances to warrant some reward for our efforts as we fell the wrong side of a tight encounter against Forest in the Premier League on Boxing Day.

The only goal of the game came as Forest countered from our attack after 28 minutes, Anthony Elanga breaking onto Morgan Gibbs-White’s pass to prod past the advancing Fraser Forster.

Brennan Johnson was central to our best chances on his return to his former club, denied on three occasions by Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels - a low parry in the first half followed by a tip over, then a big one-on-one block from close range in the second half. The statistics all landed in our favour - more possession, passes, efforts on goal, efforts on target, corners - but it wasn’t to be.

There were further injury concerns as Radu Dragusin limped off late in the game - Yves Bissouma our emergency centre-back for the last 10 minutes - and to compound it all, Djed Spence was sent off for a second bookable offence in added time.

Speaking afterwards on our Review Show from the City Ground, Ange first up gave his overall verdict: “Obviously, disappointing,” he said. “It was never going to be one of those games where there were going to be a lot of opportunities. I thought we had our fair share that we could have capitalised on, but we weren’t able to do so, and in a tight game, there wasn’t much between the teams.”

The statistics point to a good performance...

Ange: “The boys are giving everything. I can’t ask for more. We’re asking for a lot from a lot of them, and it’s not through a want of trying, like I said, that’s all I can ask for. We’re putting in the effort, we just weren’t able to get over the top today.”

How tough is it when you know the players are giving everything, yet those efforts are unrewarded on a day like today?

Ange: “It’s tough. Like I said, I can’t fault the players’ efforts. Ultimately, they keep trying as hard as they can to get us out of this and will continue to do so.”

Radu came off at the end - any news on him?

Ange: “Not yet, it was a knock on his ankle, he said he couldn’t continue, we’ll have to assess him and see how we are.”