Nottingham Forest 1 – 2 Brighton & Hove Albion
The last game of the season at the City Ground played host to some late drama, as Brighton scored in injury time to snatch the elusive 6th place play off spot from Reading, who drew with Burnley. It will remain a season which got away from the home side Forest, the Reds spent 90 percent of the season in the top 6 but a late dip in form meant their season pitted out into mediocrity. As for the Seagulls, they have a 2 legged play off vs, Forest’s local rivals, Derby County to look forward too.
Despite Forest having nothing to play for before kick off they threatened to spoil the visitors day as they took the lead in the 22nd minute through Matty Derbyshire, albeit due to a Tomasz Kuszcek error. They even looked comfortable, Brighton lacking power in the middle of the park, which further frustrated the home support as they would have missed out on the play offs by just a 2 point margin. Half time lead to changes though, as Brighton upped their game and scored early, as the ball fell to Ward in the penalty box. It wasn’t until added time, however, that Brighton got the decisive goal, Craig Mackail-Smith’s cross was left by Danny Collins and Leo Ullao tapped in his 14th of the season to send the away end into absolute delirium.
Nottingham Forest
| Doris de Vries Despite conceding two goals, de Vries pulled off some spectacular stops, none more so than the brilliant save to deny Calderon. Deputising valiantly for Karl Darlow | 8.0 |
| Jamie Mackie Showed his versatility as the centre forward, come right wing, come right back had to play behind Stephan McLaughlin in full back. Had never played at right back before and didn’t cope too well with the tricky wingers Brighton possess | 3.5 |
| Lee Peltier Had a great game at centre back, completing his loan spell at Forest with another solid performance. In the first half dealing with Ulloa well and could not help his defensive partners short comings… | 7.5 |
| Danny Collins If your rating them out of 10, then you have got too use all of them, Collins had a shocking game. His lack of pace was shown to allow Ulloa clean through one on one, which he scuffed wide and lack of awareness was shown as he let Craig Mackial Smith’s cross whistle past him and onto Ulloa’s head | 1.5 |
| Dan Harding Playing against his former side Harding performed admirably, Brighton’s tactics first half were all wrong as winger didn’t track back which led to Harding having acres of space, and he made several good runs and crosses. | 7.0 |
| David Vaughan Vaughan has been announced as new boss Stuart Pearce’s first signing, joining when his current deal at Sunderland ends, and he had a game to match. Was given the home side’s man of the match award, topped off by the brilliant pass to find Derbyshire for his goal | 7.5 |
| Stephan McLaughlin Making his home debut 1 and a half years after signing, the 24 year old did not have an effective tell on the match. | 5.0 |
| Ben Osborn The youngster was good when on the ball with intelligent movement well above his years, but second half seemed slightly overran and sat too deep | 6.0 |
| Radi Majewski Was barely involved, even when his side were playing well, he seemed to do a Houdini act and disappear for 90 minutes (well, 76 minutes) | 4.0 |
| Marcus Tudgay In what could well be Tudgay’s last appearance for Forest after 3 and a half years at the club, Tudgay played as a decent strike partner to Derbyshire, linking up a few times | 6.0 |
| Matt Derbyshire Derbyshire will hope he’s done enough to earn a new deal, scoring his 6th goal in 6 games and again having a tireless game | 7.5 |
Substitutions
| Jonathan Greening Greening (and his new skin head look) arrived just as Brighton started to apply pressure and force Forest back, so in turn did not look particularly impressive | 4.0 |
| Josh Rees The latest player to be handed his debut by caretaker boss Gary Brazil, the man from Arsenal’s academy did not get many touches off the ball | 4.5 |
| Simon Cox Cox has had a poor 2014, with a goal to game ratio many centre backs would be ashamed off Cox showed no sign of the player Forest hoped they had signed when they paid £2m for him | 3.5 |
Brighton & Hove Albion
| Tomasz Kuszcek Obviously made a mess of a simple header leading to Forest taking the lead, but his distribution was very good often finding a teammate in space | 6.0 |
| Inigo Calderon Was involved with a couple of Brighton chances, a good volley saved by Forests number 29, and a long ball which led to Ulloa getting a chance. Despite being left alone with 2 Forest players he coped well | 8.0 |
| Gordan Greer Restricted Forest to long range shots when under pressure, and passed the ball well | 6,5 |
| Matt Upson Very good in the air and got close to Forest’s forwards, using his physicality to effect | 7.0 |
| Stephan Ward Got that crucial goal with a well struck volley, and kept an attacking Forest right hand side extremely quiet | 8.5 |
| Jack Forster-Caskey First half had a torrid time, operating in front of his back four he lacked strength and drive and more creative players would have torn him apart, did up his game after the break however | 4.5 |
| Keith Andrews very similar to Forster-Carskey and look like they shouldn’t have started together, Andrews also gave the ball away with a sloppy pass leading to Forests opener | 4.0 |
| Andreas Orlandi Didn’t look fully fit as the usually effective midfielder had a quiet game the highlight of which was his one man pitch invasion to celebrate Brighton’s winner | 5.0 |
| Will Buckley Frightened Forest’s left back Harding, particularly during the second half, Buckley’s pace was a threat all game | 7.5 |
| Jesse Lingard Not as effective as his right wing counter part, up against a part time right back the Man United loanee didn’t make enough of the time he had on the ball | 5.5 |
| Leonardo Ulloa The big front man honestly could have not touched the ball for 90 minutes and all Brighton fans would have remembered was that goal, they’re the moments you can’t buy in football. And as it turns out he did touch the ball during the game, Holding it up most times if was sent long to him with the only low point being the missed chance early on | 9.0 |
Substitutions
| Kazenga Lua Lua Dubbed ‘The Black Arjen Robben’ by a fan sitting near me Lua Lua would repeatable cut in from the left and shoot at goal. He came close several times and was the injection of pace they needed when they looked as if they were tiring | 7.5 |
| Solly March The 19 year old was bought on to help the struggling midfield and looked decent playing in the centre of the park | 6.0 |
| Craig Mackail-Smith After sitting out the majority of the season with a bad injury, CMS came off the bench to set up the goal which extends it. | 7.0 |
Man of the match
| Leonardo Ulloa: Ulloa had a good game despite difficult circumstance, as he was feeding off scraps in the first half. Then second half became a real threat until he ultimately got the vital touch to direct the all into the net | 9.0 |
