This afternoon we welcome Ange Postecoglou and his Nottingham Forest squad to St. James’ Park.
Ange’s teams are always dangerous to play against, and we know how much quality Forest have from our hard-fought matches last season. So we face another big test today, and one we’ll need to hit our best levels for.
It’s fair to say our last home game against Arsenal was a day of mixed emotions. We started the match on the front foot and deservedly took the lead towards the end of the first half when Nick Woltemade capped off an excellent move to score his second goal for us. We continued to cause Arsenal problems for the remainder of the half and for most of the second, without adding to our lead.
Arsenal’s quality means they are always capable of finding a way back into a match, and while I didn’t feel we were at our fluent best, the players worked incredibly hard to protect the lead. So to lose two late goals was so disappointing and out of context in a game where we felt our efforts deserved much more.
A few days later, we returned to Champions League action and travelled to Brussels to face the Belgian champions and league leaders, Union Saint-Gilloise. From the first minute we looked a threat and were rewarded early on when another goal from Nick gave us the lead our possession deserved. We continued to push for more and added a second when Anthony Gordon converted a penalty just before the break.
We picked up where we left off in the second half and Anthony scored a second from the spot, before Harvey Barnes got our fourth goal late on.
Four goals was a big boost, as was another clean sheet, an away win in the Champions League and the biggest victory in the competition we have ever managed.
So an excellent performance and result and one the players deserve huge credit for achieving, especially in response to the disappointment of losing late against Arsenal.
Today we return to league action and our last game before another international break. The fixtures are coming thick and fast, so we’ll once again rely on our full squad to give ourselves the best chance. As always, we’ll also need more of your incredible support. The reception you gave the players at the final whistle against Arsenal showed you appreciated how much they’d given to the cause, and it meant so much. The same applied to the fans who travelled to Belgium to inspire the players, where it felt great to give you the result your time and effort deserved. Thank you as always for your incredible backing, which we never take for granted.
