Brighton 1-0 Nottingham Forest: Dull win what the doctor ordered
After all the drama of One Night in Rome, what the Albion needed was a dull victory to steady the ship. Brighton 1-0 Nottingham Forest was therefore exactly what the doctor ordered, thanks to a helping hand from referee Michael Salisbury.
Presumably, Mr Salisbury is now in the 20 percent of officials who Roberto De Zerbi likes. Not only did he award the Albion a goal when the entire Amex was stood waiting for it to be disallowed, but he somehow concluded that a studs up challenge from Jakub Moder on Neco Williams with 67 minutes played was only worthy of a yellow.
Forest are famously the only club in the world who appoint a special referee consultant to moan about decisions going against then. Mark Clattenburg will have his work cut out this week between his role at the City Ground and overseeing Gladiators.
De Zerbi talked in the aftermath of Roma 4-0 Brighton about the Albion needing to learn from their mistakes, from boardroom level to himself to the players.
The Seagulls head coach heeded his own words, ditching the disastrous back three which had seen Brighton ship four goals in Rome and Luton and three against Fulham.
A rare clean sheet was the result with Bart Verbruggen back in goal not overly troubled. Forest were very limited in attack – their own fans saying afterwards that even if Moder had seen red, they could have played for another 10 hours and not scored – but the importance of such a solid defensive display still cannot be discounted.
There were empty seats all around the Amex, presumably due to a combination of Mother’s Day and supporters still recovering from the excesses of Italy.
Hangovers, tiredness, only arriving back at Gatwick on Sunday morning, stab wounds… the regular sort of things that prevent a fan attending a game on the Sunday after facing Roma on Thursday night.
From the start, the most likely route to goal for Brighton seemed via Pascal Gross set pieces. Moder almost marked his first start for nearly two years with a goal when his glancing header from a Gross free kick was pushed away at full stretch by Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels.
Williams then blocked an Ansu Fati header from another Gross delivery. Moder and Fati were both enjoying lively openings, with Fati causing an early yellow card for Andrew Omobamidele.
That was the beginning of an interesting 10 minutes for Omobamidele, who would go onto be the scorer of the only goal in Brighton 1-0 Forest. Problematically for the Tricky Trees, it was at the wrong end of the pitch.
Gross swung over another free kick from the right and all of Moder, Omobamidele and Sels rose together to try and win the ball.
Omobamidele ended up flicking the ball past his own goalkeeper. Judging by the lack of celebration on the pitch and in the stands, virtually everyone was expecting the goal to be ruled out for a foul on Sels.
Forest were livid when Mr Salisbury subsequently pointed to the halfway line to indicate the goal would stand. You could understand why… had it been the other way around, Brighton fans would have cried blue murder.
We know that for a fact given the number of questionable decisions the Albion have been on the wrong end of over the past 18 months. Maybe these things do even themselves out?
Verbruggen was called into action for the first time as the visitors almost found an immediate equaliser. Dovick Origi found himself played in one-on-one but placed his shot too close to the Brighton goalkeeper, who extended his leg to ensure Forest remained 1-0 behind.
Former Albion striker Chris Wood linked up nicely with Origi after the break, only for the latter to slice harmlessly wide when he should have at least tested Verbruggen.
After the controversial decision not to send Moder off, Wood drew Verbruggen’s second and final save of the afternoon with a low drive repelled by a strong hand.
Julio Enciso whistled a shot just past the post and there was a certain amount of relief when a header from Cheikh Kouyate landed on the roof of the net with Verbruggen looking beaten.
The Amex burst into laughter when Richard Reynolds announced an attendance of 31,505, just 200 people shy of the record crowd at the stadium.
Yes, we all know Brighton use a tickets sold figure rather than actual bodies through the turnstiles, but it still remains farcical and comical when there is such an obvious discrepancy between what the club claim is going on and the evidence in front of our very own eyes.
That laughter soon gave way to applause come the final whistle. Not a game which will live long in the memory, but exactly the sort of performance and result the Albion need to repeat over the remaining 10 Premier League matches of the season.
Keep doing it and claims that Brighton’s season is already over will prove to be premature. Europe still remains very much on the cards.
