First-half goal hands Forest maximum points

We suffered a Boxing Day defeat in the fog on the banks of the River Trent as Anthony Elanga scored the only goal of the game to give Nottingham Forest a narrow victory at the City Ground.

Although we totally dominated the possession stats, enjoying 70 per cent of the ball throughout the game, we couldn’t penetrate the home side’s defence after Elanga had put them ahead following a swift counter-attack in the first half.

Brennan Johnson had the best of our chances on his return to his former club but found Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels in fine form as he thwarted the Wales international forward on three occasions.

We created an early chance just three minutes in, Heung-Min Son choosing to go it alone on a counter-attack but his effort was deflected and saved by Sels while Callum Hudson-Odoi curled over at the other end in the 11th minute. We were playing some neat football through the lines and went close on 26 minutes, Dominic Solanke’s shot blocked before Johnson forced Sels into a save with an angled drive but it was the hosts who took the lead moments later with a swift break, Morgan Gibbs-White surging forward and sliding a pass through for Elanga to coolly convert past Fraser Forster.

Wonderful work from Dejan Kulusevski down the right flank set up a great chance for Johnson in the 39th minute only for Sels to pull off an even better save to tip the shot over the bar, while Son curled a 20-yard free-kick into the side-netting as we finished the first half on the front foot.

After a quiet opening to the second period, Forest had the first sight of goal seven minutes in when Forster punched away a cross and was then up quick to block Gibbs-White on the follow up. We then went up the other end, Pape Matar Sarr’s volley blocked from a corner with Johnson superbly bringing the rebound down to create space for a shot which Sels saved again rushing off his line.

Chances dried up again for a spell until substitute James Maddison drilled over on 66 minutes before Ola Aina missed his kick in front of goal at the end of a Forest break. The home side switched to three at the back as they looked to hold onto what they had, which meant we saw plenty of the ball in the closing stages but found it difficult to break down the Forest defence, Solanke with a stoppage-time header off target from a Pedro Porro cross one half-chance we created. We won a couple of free-kicks in the final minutes but couldn’t fashion the chance we needed and instead, suffered a late dismissal when ex-Forest man Djed Spence received a second yellow card for a foul on Jota Silva.

Team news saw Ange Postecoglou make three changes to the side that faced Liverpool on Sunday as Destiny Udogie returned from injury, Rodrigo Bentancur was back from suspension and Johnson started against his former club, with Pedro Porro, Maddison and Yves Bissouma on the bench.

Match data

Goal: Nottingham Forest – Elanga 28.

Yellow cards: Forest – Yates, Anderson, Murillo; Spurs – Dragusin, Spence, Maddison.

Red card: Spurs – Spence.

Referee: Craig Pawson.

Venue: The City Ground, Nottingham.

Weather: Misty and light winds, seven degrees.

Attendance: 30,200.