Nottingham Forest 1-2 Millwall

Nottingham Forest 1 – 2 Millwall

Two bang out of form sides met on a rainy day in Nottingham, Forest without a win in 10 and Millwall with only one win in their last 13, coming away at Forests East Midlands rivals Derby County. Stuart Pearce’s return was announced by Forest during the week, due to start in the summer but Millwall were the ones to pour more sorrows on his, soon to be, side. First half goals from Scott Malone and Lee Martin were enough to claim all three points, despite Jamie Paterson’s second half goal threatening to start a revival. It was a perfect away performance by Ian Holloway’s side,  an injury weakened Forest XI unable to break down a solid Millwall defence, despite having the lions share of possession. Supported by plenty of dangerous counter attacks which, in the end, were Forests undoing.

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Nottingham Forest

Karl Darlow Darlows kicking left a lot to be desired throughout, but did make a superb save from a Morison folly. couldn’t be blamed for either goal 6.0
Gonzalo Jara Played as though he had one eye on the summers World Cup, not going into 50/50 tackles and generally not looking interested 3.5
Greg Halford Could be argued to be at fault for both Millwall goals, was subbed off fairly early on 2.5
Danny Collins Shocking distribution through out and never fills any Forest fans with confidence 3.0
Dan Harding Good performance from harding, putting in his usual shift and proving a good cross for Forests goal 6.5
Jonathan Greening Composed in possession swell as showing his ability in switching the play, Forests best player once again 7.0
Lee Peltier Picked up the match-day sponcers MOTM but didn’t really have an effect on the game to warrant it 5.0
Ben Osborn The youngster making his first City Ground appearance looked like a small child, consistantly over estimating how much space and time he had and getting out muscles, but did show some promising signs with a few encouraging dribbles and touches 5.5
Radi Majewski The divisions most consistent player; consistently invisible and ineffective for an hour before being subsituted and today was no exception 4.5
Jamie Paterson Got on the scoresheet but overall his performance wasn’t that of the standard he showed until a few weeks ago, lost the ball in attacking positions several times 6.0
Jamie Mackie Being deployed as a striker Mackies high work rate wasn’t as effective and his lack of natural finishing and passing ability showed him up 4.0

Substitutions

Kelvin Wilson Came on for his first games in months and seemed like he had never been away, commanding the whole back four and having a big effect on the teams performace 6.5
Henri Lansbury In a similar way Wilson return galvanised the squad, Lansbury’s did also. Making a real impact and having s scorcher of a free kick rattle into the stanchion behind the goal 6.0
Darius Henderson Came on versus his former club and was only really deployed at a target for hoofs from the back, did his best but in the end it wasn’t enough 4.5

MIllwall

David Forde had a solid performance although didn’t have a lot to do that wasn’t simple, ran down the clock effectivly 6.0
Carlos Edwards Dealt with Dan Harding and Ben Osborn without being tested and imposed himself physically on a lightweight Forest Midfield 6.5
Alan Dunne Won every header and didn’t under threat at any point 6.5
Mark Beevers The other half of a successful centre back partnership that performed very well and provided the foundation to the rest of the team 7.0
Scott Malone A constant threat down the left as he often lost his marker and ran free on the overlap, bagged a goal vier a deflection 8.0
Nicky Bailey Worked hard off the ball for Millwall, sitting in front of the back four along side Upson and muted any creativity Forest had 8.0
Ed Upson The january signing had already scored twice vs Forest this season and followed that up with another good display, for his new side 7.5
Owen Garvan Harried Ben osborn all game and often dispossessed him, the irishman had a fairly productive afternoon 6.5
Lee Martin In the middle of both Goals, brilliantly scoring the second (and eventual winner) himself and was great all game, closing down off the ball and quickly breaking whenever Millwall got it 7.5
Martyn Woolford Another player to have scored vs Forest this season, back in this fixtures reverse, this time round he didn’t score but still played well in his constant closing down which would cause Forest to pass backwards or hoof it long 7.5
Stefan Maierhofer The giant Austrian got an assist for Malone deflected goal and like Woolford bustled Forest on the ball, however he could well have got sent off if a more strict referee had been officiating, as he committed multiple fouls before being subbed 6.0

Substitutions

Steve Morison Came off the bench with his side needing to hold and and provided a good outlet for them when required, tested Darlow late of with a powerful volley 5.5
Scott McDonald Replaced Maierhofer but was quite ineffectual on the game 4.5
Paul Robinson Helped Millwall see out the last 10 minutes and, whether it was down to him or not, Forest hardly threatened 5.5

Man of the Match

Scott Malone: The fullback had a great game, playing in a typical Holloway system of fullbacks running up to overlap wingers and support attacks he was always there, and his deflected cross was the icing on the cake beating Darlow at his near post. 8.0

Highlights

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