That’s the lot from me. Thanks for reading and emailing in. Bye!
This is not an intro you see much of, to be fair:
“Pornographic noises disrupted Saturday evening’s Euro 2024 draw in Hamburg.”
Peter Lansley’s match report is right here:
I wonder why they call it “the paintbrush”? Is it because you have the time to apply an artistic flourish?
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Everton’s matchwinner, McNeil, speaks to Sky Sports: “It’s massive. Massive for the players and massive for the fans as well, after getting hit with the 10-point deduction … We’ve shown good resilience tonight and I thought we deserved three points.
“[The goal] was just about getting on the back post and anticipating. And luckily the ball fell my way … it was a good first touch, and then it was about getting the ball in the back of the net. And I managed to do it. But I’m very happy to help the team out tonight. Like I say, it’s another massive three points. Another one on the road.
“We’ve got to keep moving forward because we’ve got another massive game on Thursday. [against Newcastle]”
He is asked to expand further on the goal: “Yeah. It’s about composure. Me and a few of the other lads have a bit of banter on the training ground about when it falls like that, and we call it the “paintbrush” … the lads are buzzing about that for me … I want to score more goals, I want to impact more games, and I want to get better as a player.”
Has the 10-point deduction fuelled them? “Yeah, definitely. We had a discussion when the lads got back from the internationals, as a team, about what’s gone on and how we can’t let it affect us. Against Man United it was a tough one at home, but we came here tonight and we put things right and we got another massive three points on the board.
“We want to keep going. We know we’ve got a good team. We know we want to improve each week as a team and individually. And I think we’ve got that good togetherness this year. Everyone’s together as a group. It’s good, it’s becoming one big family.”
Kelly Cates asks: Having won against Forest, does things feel brighter? “We’ve got massive games coming up. We’ve just got to take it a game at a time. We rest, we recover, and analyse Thursday, because we know Newcastle are an amazing team.”
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The Everton assistant manager, Ian Woan, would have been proud of that McNeil winner. A sweet, sweet hit with a cultured left peg.
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Three road wins for Everton in a row now.
Forest stay 15th, a point above Bournemouth, four above Luton Town. Unless they improve on that display they will certainly be dragged into a full-blown relegation dogfight.
Three away wins in a row for @Everton 🫡#NFOEVE pic.twitter.com/zX4E90zY6A
— Premier League (@premierleague) December 2, 2023
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There will absolutely be complaints about the VAR check for the challenge by Doucoure on Yates. It looked a clear foul. Were Forest unlucky? Truth is, Everton defended wonderfully well throughout, and Forest really struggled to get properly amongst them.
James Garner was named player of the match, but it could easily have been Tarkowski, or indeed Branthwaite. Good, old-school defending that will have Dyche purring.
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Full-time! Nottingham Forest 0-1 Everton
Everton deserved that. The three points lifts them off the bottom to 18th place, level on seven points with Burnley, but with a superior goal difference (-5 to -17).
The Everton players look suitably thrilled. Doucoure shakes hands with the matchwinner, McNeil, after Tarkowski gives the former Burnley man a hug.
Augusto Felipe after their defeat. Photograph: Nigel French/PA
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90 min + 3: Hudson-Odoi has another go and this time sends over a good, searching cross. Tarkowski heads clear. Murillo is playing up front for Forest now. Someone tries a silly backheel and Everton manage to hack the ball clear.
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92 min: Hudson-Odoi gets it on the right for Forest now, and tries to cross, but it’s a naff effort that is easily intercepted by the defender who’s standing a few yards away.
90 min + 1: Aurier pumps a diagonal ball into the box. Hopeful at best, and Tarkowski, who has been exceptional along with all of Everton’s defence, climbs highest to head it away.
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90 min: We will have four added minutes.
89 min: Forest feed the ball out to Elanga on the left, in the corner of the penalty area. The Sweden international whips a tremendous first-time shot with his left foot that has Pickford scrambling across his goal. But it flashes fractionally wide!
88 min: Time’s running out for Forest. Is it running out for Steve Cooper? Can someone, somewhere find a goal and a precious point? This would make it one win in the last 10. Relegation form.
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85 min: Big noise from the home fans. But still the team are not exactly laying siege to the Everton goal. As I type, Murillo bursts towards the penalty area and unleashes a powerful left-footed shot that skips off the turf in front of Pickford, who makes a smart save low down to his left.
83 min: Forest stream forward on the counter. Gibbs-White finds Elanga with a measured pass. Elanga has space on the left, and a sight of goal, but Pickford shows his worth by rushing off his line and smothering the ball. Good goalkeeping.
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82 min: Beto comes off for Everton, Youssef Chermiti comes on. For Forest, Harry Toffolo off, and here comes Divock Origi. Can he get Forest out of jail?
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80 min: Felipe fouls Beto. Again it’s cynical. But there is no second booking. Dyche, on the touchline, and Tarkowski on the pitch make their feelings known to the referee, Paul Tierney. The free-kick comes to nought.
78 min: Hudson-Odoi looks to slide a pass through to Aurier, but Aurier doesn’t read it. Forest soon attack down the opposite flank and Yates has a first-time shot from the edge of the box which is blocked. A bit of attacking momentum is building for Forest now.
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75 min: Branthwaite and Pickford seem to indulge in a bit of time-wasting with some apparent confusion over which ball to use before a goal-kick. The referee warns Pickford – but there is no card. The noise levels are increasing at the City Ground but the players on the pitch can’t seem to exert any sustained pressure on the Everton goal.
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73 min: Elanga pops up in the right channel for Forest and chases a ball to the byline. He tries to cross, or shoot, but it goes out for a corner. From that resulting set piece there is a VAR check for a handball by Doucoure but again Everton survive the attentions of the people at Stockley Park.
70 min: Forest have 20 minutes to salvage something but in truth they have hardly troubled the Everton back line. If it does end up being three points for Everton, Cooper will certainly point to that VAR review when it was decided that Doucoure had not fouled Yates in the area.
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Goal! Nottingham Forest 0-1 Everton (McNeil 67)
Right in the top corner! From the halfway line, Pickford drills a free-kick across the field, high and deep into the hosts’ territory. Forest are back-pedalling and they half-clear it, but Harrison does well for Everton to gather the ball, exchange passes with a teammate and clip over a cross that Beto tries to head – but he can’t reach it. That turns out to be a good thing for Everton when McNeil takes a touch at the far post, before burying a sensational finish into the top corner from an angle. Power, precision, and a deserved lead for Everton. He really got hold of that, it was beautiful technique, and Vlachodimos had no chance.
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66 min: Callum Hudson-Odoi comes on for Forest.
65 min: Forest break. Elanga does well to cut inside and find Gibbs-White on the other side of the pitch. Gibbs-White tries a nuanced little cross to the far post but it bounces harmlessly away.
61 min: Everton remain camped in Forest’s half. Literally camped in their half? No, they’ve not yet pitched a tent and fired up the gas stove, but they are having all the ball and most of the territory.
Forest are standing firm, though, and they reduce Beto to an optimistic effort from the edge of the box. It’s another awful attempt: he never looks remotely likely to trouble the scorers with a shot that balloons high and well, well wide.
59 min: Forest are firmly on the back foot. Which means, you see, that Everton are firmly on the front foot.
On the telly they replay the Doucoure pull on Yates, which does very much look like a foul.
58 min: “At risk of putting a hex on the Toffees, I reckon they’ve enough skill, style, and panache to get a stomp on and move to safety by end of February,” emails Bill. “They’re used to these thrilling heroics at the wrong end of the table, but have enough about them to grind these games out better than those above them. It isn’t too far a gap. There’s going to be Premiership football at Bramley Dock when it’s finished.”
55 min: Felipe is booked for a cynical pull on McNeil. Young bangs the free-kick goalwards but Yates jumps up in the wall and clears with his bonce.
53 min: Yates sprays a pass out to Gibbs-White on the right. Forest continue to lack any real cutting edge in attack but the former Wolves player does well to win a corner despite being isolated. There is a scramble in the penalty area, with Elanga hitting a shot from the far post, and then Felipe drilling a shot which cannons out and away off the outside of a post! VAR is checking for a penalty after a pull by Doucoure on Yates as the ball came over … it looks to be very much in “seen them given” territory, but the VAR says nothing doing.
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49 min: Elanga wins another free-kick for Forest on their left wing. Gibbs-White to take. It’s a brilliant delivery, whipped with pace into the six-yard box, but Branthwaite meets it with an equally excellent defensive header and Everton can clear.
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48 min: Forest’s central midfielders are not snapping into tackles with the same enthusiasm as Everton’s. In addition, they look relatively disjointed when they do win possession, while Everton are showing glimpses of attacking fluidity.
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46 min: The Forest fans, warmed by their half-time Bovril, are in fine voice at the start of the second half. But can the team really give them something to sing about?
Second-half kick-off!
Willy Boly off, Felipe on for Forest at half-time.
Half time! Nottingham Forest 0-0 Everton
At the top of their broadcast, Sky Sports informed us that Forest last beat Everton at the City Ground in 1995. That winless run looks set to continue at this rate …
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45 min + 4: Forest have a rare sight of goal – Sangare lays off to Gibbs-White, who chooses to go with power and aim for the near post. But he gets it wrong and the ball flies wide. Everton then have another chance when a ball ricochets off a Forest body. Doucoure is bearing down on goal but overhits a pass, and that’s the lot for the first half.
45 min +2: Actually, in the live table, Everton are second-bottom. If this stays 0-0, the point would put them above Sheffield United, who have a ludicrous goal difference of -28.
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45 min: We’ll have five minutes of added time at the end of the first half. Forest could very easily be two or three down. Everton are bottom of the table but they don’t look like a side particularly short on confidence. To observe their league position belies their performances, in view of that 10-point penalty, is literally true.
43 min: Whoah! Forest have possession and are moving forward but they lose it around halfway, and the defence is all at sea. Doucoure does well to control the ball in a central spot, just outside the penalty area, and then lay it off to McNeil, who is running into lots of space on the Everton left. McNeil is in: he takes a touch and promptly clumps a low left-footed shot which is flying into the open net, beyond a helpless Vlachodimos … but Murillo gets back to pull off miraculous clearance off the goal line, which kisses the post on its way out!
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40 min: Aurier launches an expansive diagonal pass across the pitch to Elanga, who almost brings it under his spell, but narrowly fails and Everton can break. Boly has to slide in awkwardly to intercept a pass looking for Beto, and now he looks like he might have injured himself too, like his defensive colleague Murillo moments earlier. The score is still 0-0.
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37 min: Murillo of Forest tries to whip the home crowd up, and manages to raise a cheer or two. Considering the pressure they were under for a good part of this half, Cooper’s side will be pretty happy to go in for half-time level. But Everton get on the move again, McNeill whipping a cross over from the left. Murillo heads it clear but appears to slightly twang something in the process and limps away from the scene.
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33 min: Alan Tate, the Forest assistant manager, is booked – I think for encroaching outside the technical area.
“As someone with no dog in the fight, I do not understand the pressure on Cooper,” emails Joe Pearson. “Given what he did last season, he should be considered a miracle worker. The team that started in the Premier League was nearly completely overhauled from the one he won promotion with.”
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30 min: Elanga shows a touch of composure and class to put his foot on the ball, cut back away from Young, and cross from the Forest left into the penalty area. The hosts keep the attack going, with Aurier involved again on the opposite flank after Sangare tries a cute little flick in the middle. The ball eventually comes back to Elanga after he started the move, and he cracks a first-time shot which flashes just wide of the far post. Better from Forest.
28 min: Aurier looks to play a short pass inside to Sangare, but the Ivory Coast international is crowded out by banks of Everton defenders. Forest have not had a shot on target.
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27 min: Forest have a rare glimpse of the Everton penalty area. Elanga floats a harmless cross in which is snaffled comfortably by Pickford. This is turning into a very unconvincing performance by Forest – Everton look hungrier and are winning most if not all of the 50-50s.
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26 min: England have been drawn with Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia at Euro 2024. Scotland have Germany, Hungary and Switzerland.
23 min: A long ball is pumped down the middle of Forest’s increasingly creaky defence. Vlachodimos comes out to meet it but flaps at it with McNeil challenging him. As a result the keeper is nowhere when the ball drops nicely to Beto, around the penalty spot, who could choose to pass the ball into either corner of the net. He does sidefoot it – but gets underneath it – and lifts it high over the crossbar. A horrible effort, and a lucky escape for Forest – it should be 1-0.
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21 min: Another free-kick for Everton. Another short routine, another header won at the far post by Tarkowski. Elanga appears to brush the bouncing ball with his hand a couple of seconds later, and the Everton fans wail for a penalty, but nothing doing.
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19 min: Forest had a nice little spell early doors but the match is now being played largely in their half. Boly is penalised for a sturdy challenge on Dwight McNeil. The resulting free-kick is taken short but is then worked into the Forest box, where Tarkowski wins an old-school header from a looping delivery. Branthwaite tries to lash a shot towards goal after Tarkowski creates it but misses the ball.
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18 min: An email from Charlie - “I was reflecting on Everton’s situation after their defeat by Manchester United, and concluded that if they allow their anger over the (in my humble opinion, deserved) points deduction to totally consume them, they’re simply going to fatally distract themselves from the job of winning points.
“As a Derby fan, I completely understand their antipathy towards the authorities, but the constant pantomime booing of every decision and the silly “corrupt” posters was just too much. Perhaps the ire of the fans would be better directed at the profligate and incompetent owners that have landed them in this situation, rather than the Premier League jobsworths and bean counters.”
16 min: A somewhat comical passage of play unfolds in the Forest area. The ball bounces around seemingly aimlessly for a while with no one able to control it. Everton get it, mess up a simple one-two, but Forest give it back to them for another try. Harrison tries to bend a cross to the far post but skews it out high and wide for a goal kick.
15 min: Young crosses from the Everton right, looking for Beto. Forest’s defence is suddenly under a bit of pressure. They deal with it for now.
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13 min: A break in play when Wood, the forward, goes down injured for Forest after tangling with Jarrad Branthwaite. There is movement on the bench but it looks like Wood is going to try and run it off. Looks like he twisted his left leg slightly but think he’ll be OK.
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10 min: Elanga, as predicted by Eric from Pittsburgh below, has Young on toast down the Forest left. Maybe not quite toast, but certainly lightly grilled. They are shoulder to shoulder but Young is losing the battle and he feels obliged to foul his opponent, lest he show him a clean pair of boots, and Forest have a free-kick in a very handy spot. The set-piece is bent over into the six-yard box but flicked away and clear.
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9 min: Elanga loses it for Forest and Everton are quickly on the attack. However, Elanga shows good energy and effort to track back and force the ball out. Corner to Everton, which is flapped at by Vlachodimos. But Forest get away with it and clear.
8 min: “Given that we are celebrating 60 years of Dr Who (I am old enough to have watched the first episode live) let’s time travel back to the 80s, a decade, yes a decade without a Manchester engraving on the trophy,” emails Jeremy Boyce. “It was all Paisley, Clough and yes, Harvey. Great to see Forest and Everton tussling it out again, albeit at the wrong end of the table. Great that Forest have stayed loyal to Steve, fingers crossed for him. Great that Toffees have Dyche who will steel them for the challenges ahead. As a neutral (actually a Leeds fan, let’s not go into that...) a draw would seem to be a fair result, which would actually suit neither of them. May the better team win!”
6 min: Aurier is causing bother down the right for Forest. He slides a pass to Gibbs-White, who gets to the byline and hangs a cross up to the far post. But it’s a “bit too floaty”, as the Sky co-commentator rightly points out. There were several Forest bodies on the scene, however.
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3 min: Chris Wood, the former Burnley man, brings a roar from the Forest faithful when he sprints to try and gather a ball down the right channel for Forest. But he can’t get close to it. Aurier soon bends a cross from the same side, looking for Wood again, but Tarkowski clears with his noggin.
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2 min: Harrison half-volleys a through ball down the middle in the direction of Doucoure, who has made a good run and rushed beyond the Forest back line. And indeed he’s flagged offside when he gets on the end of it. There’s been quite a bit of putting-your-foot-through-it from both defences in the early skirmishes.
First half kick off!
Forest get things moving at a noisy City Ground.
The teams are literally out on the pitch! This is happening.
“Hello from Pittsburgh!” emails Eric Peterson. “No better way for a Toffee on this side of the pond to start the day than to see keeper-turned-analyst Tim Howard informed live on air in the US broadcast studio that he’s been tapped for the US Soccer Hall of Fame.
“What a representative of the game, his country, and every club team he’s ever suited up for. Now if we can only see his 16-save heroics against Belgium in the World Cup replicated by Jordan Pickford as Ashley Young gets torched again and again by Anthony Elanga on the Forest left wing. Gulp.”
“It feels like a big game … I’ve got a feeling we’ll have some goals tonight,” opines Redknapp on Sky.
Redknapp’s fellow pundit Izzy Christiansen, meanwhile, tells Kelly Cates it’s an interesting one tactically: she thinks that Morgan Gibbs-White will be drifting infield and looking to disrupt Dychey’s classic 4-4-2.
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“The Brentford”, meanwhile, defeated Luton 3-1:
“The Arsenal” beat Wolves 2-1:
Burnley won 5-0, which is not something you see every day:
A rainbow armband for Ryan Yates, to mark Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign.
“A key focus of the partnership with Stonewall encourages LGBT+ acceptance among children and young people involved in community and education initiatives,” says the Premier League.
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) December 2, 2023
A mere 10 minutes until kick-off. Want to share your thoughts? Email me.
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Steve Cooper also has a chat with Sky Sports: “Ibrahim [Sangare] wasn’t available the last couple of weeks. He’s been ill. We’ve got an illness with Danilo this week as well so that’s made it easier [to make the decision about selection] … The journey’s been positive and we’ve got to keep that going. It’s difficult, to make it another successful season … but handling setbacks like last week is what makes you stronger. This occasion, this atmosphere, is why we’ve worked so hard over the last couple of years.”
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Sean Dyche, the Everton manager, speaks to Sky Sports: “Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s got a minor situation with his calf. The expectation [at Everton] is about our performances, and not to be worried about the noise, as I call it … I think this season we’ve shown a strong shift forward in our mentality … it’s really important that we keep focusing on performances.”
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Steve Cooper’s tenure at Nottingham Forest has been a rollercoaster, with sporadic speculation over his future. Last season, Sean Dyche, out of work after being sacked by Burnley, was touted to make a return to the club where he was an apprentice under Brian Clough. Now, as speculation again begins to circle Cooper, Dyche is at Everton. Dyche’s team’s response to their 10-point penalty in last week’s match with Manchester United managed to be both impressive in the first half and submissive in the second. Forest meanwhile came off worst in a bad-tempered defeat by Brighton after which Cooper’s complaints about refereeing failed to draw a fig leaf over a poor defensive performance. For now, local reports have Cooper retaining the “full support” of Forest’s owner, Evangelos Marinakis, but Dyche’s team dragging his old club down may swiftly alter that situation. John Brewin
“Nothing changes – we’ve just got to win games – that will be the message.”
Jamie Redknapp on Sky Sports there, analysing Sean Dyche’s approach to that 10-point penalty. Thank you for that.
Teams
Four changes for Forest: Serge Aurier, Ibrahim Sangare and Willy Boly come into the side, along with Ryan Yates, who takes the captain’s armband.
One change to the lineup for Everton – Dominic Calvert-Lewin is out with a “minor situation with his calf”, so Beto comes in up front. The Portuguese forward, who was signed from Udinese, has eight appearances thus far but no goals to speak of.
Nottm Forest: Vlachodimos, Aurier, Boly, Murillo, Toffolo, Sangare, Mangala, Yates, Gibbs-White, Wood, Elanga. Substitutes: Turner, Williams, Kouyate, Hudson-Odoi, Dominguez, Felipe, Niakhate, Origi, Aina.
Everton: Pickford, Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Harrison, Garner, Gueye, McNeil, Doucoure, Beto. Substitutes: Patterson, Keane, Danjuma, Virginia, Godfrey, Coleman, Chermiti, Hunt, Dobbin.
Referee: Paul Tierney (Lancashire)
"Dom’s got a minor situation with his calf. After the [injury problems] of the last couple of years he’s done very well more recently with a good run of games and fitness. We had to make a judgement call but Beto comes in for his chance. Let’s see what he can do for us."
— Everton (@Everton) December 2, 2023
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Everton have formally appealed against the decision to deduct the club 10 points for a breach of Premier League profit and sustainability rules, with the outcome expected in the new year.
Burnley have just gone 3-0 up against the Blades, so we can officially say that Everton are bottom of the table going into this 5.30 KO against Forest.
Scott Murray has the clockwatch here with all the 3pm kick-offs about to conclude.
And now it’s 4-0 Burnley! Everton are even more bottom than they were a minute ago!
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Preamble
Both of these teams are in the news but not much of it is good. Everton fans hoping for some kind of financial-penalty bounce instead got a 3-0 beating from Manchester United last weekend. Meanwhile speculation continues to swirl around the future of Steve Cooper, the Forest manager, with a paltry three Premier League wins on the board as the countdown to Christmas begins in earnest.
Everton have four in the “W” column, but thanks to a 10-point deduction for financial irregularities combined with Burnley’s impending success against Sheffield United, they sit rooted to the bottom of the table on four points.
Forest, meanwhile, are 15th, nine points above today’s opponents. Boasting a defence that’s recently been flakier than a yule log, they would appear to be prime candidates to be dragged down towards the mire by Sean Dyche’s industrious outfit.
Thrills and spills are in store on the banks of the River Trent in this festive relegation six-pointer. Certainly spills, anyway, hopefully with the odd thrill thrown in. Team news and more to follow.
Kick-off: 5.30pm
