Nottingham Forest midfield pair Lewis O'Brien and Orel Mangala have been praised for their performance in Sunday's 1-0 win over West Ham.
Mangala replaced Jack Colback in Steve Cooper's midfield at the City Ground and partnered O'Brien in the middle of the park. Taiwo Awoniyi's first goal for the club was the difference against David Moyes' side and handed the Reds their first Premier League win since 1999.
Both players, summer arrivals from Huddersfield and Stuttgart respectively, received rave reviews from Forest supporters following the game. And former-England international Fara Williams praised the pair for their contribution too.
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Speaking on Match of the Day 2, Williams picked out O'Brien and Mangala as two of the Reds' most impressive players. She said: "I think their intent, their energy both in attack and defence really stood out for me today. What they did I thought they were fantastic throughout the whole game and earned the luck.
“This is a bit strange for midfielders to be so stretched and this happened quite often and they were quite comfortable with big distances between them because they knew they could cover ground.
“What they do is force the opposition into an area so they’re both close enough to win the ball back, and they force an error and get a throw-in.
“When in attack, what was really exciting about them is one of them always wanted to get forward. One would always sit and initiate and try and build and one would always go but O’Brien doesn’t just make a forward run, he comes back and has a second play, he wants to get involved again.
“You’re taught to be really close and have really tight connections with your midfield partner, what was strange about them is that the distances were quite big. But what they were good at is that they were so able to cover ground and they were comfortable with that and I think even without communicating, they communicated through their signalling and eyes and they just read each other’s games really, really well.
"For two players who hadn’t played with each other before, or a few games in, to have that type of connection was fantastic and I thought their energy, both defensively and in attack really helped Forest.”
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