How Nottingham Forest must yearn for a little mundanity. Even by the standards of this endearingly quirky football club, the past few weeks have been chaotic.
They have mourned the sacking of the manager who pulled them from the Championship’s doldrums. They have appointed Nick De Marco KC, a leading sports lawyer, with the club waiting to hear whether they have been found to have breached the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability rules. They have even faced questions about why the termination of Jonjo Shelvey’s contract was originally reported as a loan.
And so, against that backdrop, a nice low-octane, drama-free progression to the FA Cup fourth round would have been most welcome. Naturally then, League One Blackpool gave Nuno Espírito Santo’s side a mighty scare.
In the end, the Portuguese manager was grateful for Nicolás Domínguez and Morgan Gibbs-White, who cancelled out goals from Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel and Albie Morgan to secure Forest a replay.
“The good part is that we have a second chance,” said a visibly disappointed Nuno. “The reaction was there, which is positive, but at the same time there was a lot of negative in the game today. We must now look at that.
“The FA Cup means a lot to us, to our fans. We want to go back to Wembley, but to do that we have to solve these things.”
Blackpool, who embarrassed Forest in last season’s third round, deserve kudos. True, goals aside, they offered precious little forward thrust. But there can be no criticism there: a third-tier side travelling to Premier League opposition must focus on the result rather than entertainment. And in a sport that is increasingly billed as requiring a PhD to properly understand, watching a team sit deep and attempt to frustrate the opposition holds its own rudimentary beauty.
“Our aim before the game was to make it as difficult as possible,” explained the Blackpool head coach, Neil Critchley. “The standard of the Premier League players now is a completely different level. It’s getting harder, in my opinion, to cause a cup upset. We came with a plan. We wanted to try and frustrate them.”
The visitors did indeed exasperate both Forest’s players and their supporters. Early attempted Chris Wood and Gibbs-White passes were sloppy. Groans greeted them.
And, what is more, Blackpool then had the cheek to hit Forest. Twice. The first came when Karamoko Dembélé jinked inside and stood up a back-post cross. Gonzalo Montiel directed his defensive header back toward his own penalty spot and Lawrence-Gabriel, formerly of Forest, headed in.
While the player shunned any celebration, the pocket of visiting fans more than made up for it. “I’d have been doing a lap of the City Ground if I were him!” joked Critchley.
Bad for Forest turned rapidly worse. CJ Hamilton’s low cross fizzed across the six-yard box and from an acute angle Morgan pleasingly steered home via both posts. Callum Hudson-Odoi, Gibbs-White and Murillo simply stood around, arms stretched quizzically.
Thereafter – aside from Hudson-Odoi switching flanks – very little changed. Forest continued to control the ball, even if the tempo was on the slow side. Blackpool tried to batten the door shut but failed. The deficit was halved when Wood fed Montiel on the overlap. Domínguez met the resulting cross, and the bulging net brought both celebration and relief to City Ground.
While Nuno’s programme notes may have been a succinct 80-odd words, he doubtless had a little more to say to his team during the half-time interval.
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Urgency and impetus were both seemingly ordered and delivered. Forest’s passing triangles had more zip. And soon parity came through Gibbs-White’s angled strike from 18 yards. It was, as Nuno put it, “a beautiful goal”. He and his coaching staff celebrated by huddling together in their technical area.
Forest pushed to complete the turnaround. Dan Grimshaw’s reflex save denied Ryan Yates; Hudson-Odoi cut in and shot straight at Grimshaw; and, right at the last, Wood could not quite stretch far enough to win it.
Instead, Forest must interrupt a planned mini-break and plan a seaside trip.
