Fatigue at Forest never meant the season was over for Brighton
I know some folks will say that highly paid professional Premier League footballers should be able to cope with playing twice a week. It happens all the time from the Championship down, after all.
What Brighton faced across Wembley and Nottingham Forest away was different. A tough 90 minutes, then 30 minutes of extra time, then penalties, then to lose 7-6 in the shootout and see an FA Cup final place slip through your fingers. All of that was made doubly tough by the Albion being the better team and deserving to beat Manchester United.
Brighton had from 8pm on the Sunday evening after the semi final until whatever time they set off for Nottingham on Tuesday to recover, with kick off at the City Ground on Wednesday at 7:30pm.
Less than 72 hours to recover and recharge before hitting the road again. Now in my book, that is tough for any athlete. Even more so for the Albion, who have spent this entire season running the extra mile to try and make history for our club.
We all want this history to happen and that is what makes games like Forest hard to take. But it was never going to be a case of season over or Europe out of the question just because of defeat at the City Ground, with eight games still to play.
Fatigue affects the thought process as well as the physical performance. The lads deserved to be cut some slack, even more so if you watched how tired United became in their midweek second half at Spurs.
United were 2-0 up at half time against a Tottenham side supposed to be in crisis. Spurs though got a second wind and it finished 2-2.
Before the 6-0 hammering of Wolves on Saturday, Brighton could collect a maximum of 24 points between losing at Forest and the end of the season on Sunday 28th May.
Three are now in the bag against opponents who had nothing to play. United, Everton and Arsenal are all fighting hard for points for different reasons and will therefore be difficult matches.
Newcastle United though might have already secured a Champions League place when Brighton go to St James’ Park. Southampton could be already relegated by the time they visit the Amex and Manchester City crowned champions.
If any of those three teams take their feet off the gas, then Brighton will be ready and waiting to pounce. Aston Villa on the final day looks likely to be a tense affair if European qualification goes down to the wire.
It is, however, quite possible the Albion could pick up 15 points or more (always think positive) from the seven games now left and that would surely be enough for the top seven. Forest was nothing more than a blip and an excusable one at that, what with the fatigue issue.
De Zerbi made only three changes at the City Ground. Facundo Buonanotte, Levi Colwill and Jason Steele came in. The match was broadcast on BT Sport whilst those of us who like to listen to Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall had that privilege as normal over the BBC Radio Sussex airwaves.
Nearly 3,000 Brighton fans made the journey to Nottingham with many not getting home until after 3am due to problems on the road. Their backing of the Albion deserves to be heavily applauded and they played a part in creating a really intense atmosphere.
From the moment referee Jarred Gillett blew his whistle to kick the game off, it appeared to be a very fast start. Brighton may not have wanted that after their Sunday exploits, but they did soon grow into the game.
Forest possess a player or two who can take an extremely long throw. Watching the extended highlights on the Albion website, at one point it was like a line out from Twickenham. The Brighton scrummage led by Steele and Lewis Dunk had to hold firm to stop Forest going over for a try.
The Albion made a number of little errors in the opening 10 minutes, which came from bad judgement. When your body is tired, your judgement can be off; those of you who are getting on in years like me will already know this!
It was one such piece of bad judgement which gave Forest an early penalty. Morgan Gibbs-White crossed from the left towards the far post, a pretty pointless cross as there was no home player to pick it up.
Pervis Estupinan gained possession but that turned out to be short lived. Estpuninan dallied, Neco Williams pounced and the Forest man now had the ball.
Estupinan caught Williams’ foot as he tried to recover and with Mr Gillet right there, the referee was quick to point to the spot.
Brennan Johnson now faced Steele. Steele made a superb save, pushing the ball to his right to stop the Albion from going 1-0 behind before the 15 minute mark. Forest then had another cracking shot which shaved the left hand post.
After surviving that, Brighton began to improve. Kaoru Mitoma did what he does best, racing down the left hand side to reach the by-line and cut back beautifully to Julio Enciso.
Enciso was in the middle of the goal on the penalty spot. His shot though was too close to Keylor Navas, who tipped over the bar with a strong hand. Perhaps if Enciso had gone low and hard, he would have scored.
To see Mitoma in full flight was to be reminded of what a great job Aaron Wan-Bissaka did for Manchester United in shutting down the threat posed by the Japanese Bullet Train at Wembley.
Another player to shine in the FA Cup semi final was Lewis Dunk. He was at it again against Forest when Johnson broke clear, only for the Albion captain to chase him down and put him off into shooting wide.
Enciso was into the action again next, weaving his way out of a tight spot breaking down the right and spotting a pass inside to Solly March.
Despite there being two Forest defenders there, March was able to turn and lay the ball into the path of Alexis Mac Allister. Unfortunately, Mac Allister side footed wide of the post.
It was debutant Buonanotte who gave Brighton the lead with a poacher’s finish. Buonanotte started the move in the centre circle, breaking and passing right to March.
Showing no lack of confidence after Sunday’s penalty miss, March went for goal with a brilliant shot on target too hot for Navas to handle.
The rebound fell to Buonanotte, showing great awareness to be in the right place at the right time to tap home his first goal for the Albion.
It looked like Brighton were going to make it to half time ahead, until Forest struck literally seconds before the whistle with 48 minutes on the clock.
Renan Lodi crossed from the Forest left and the ball hit enough of Pascal Gross’ boot to deflect past the off-guard Steele and into the back of the net. The sort of bad luck you do not need when your players are already running on empty.
The goal fired Forest up and you could hear over the radio how rocking the City Ground was. Brighton were not intimidated at first, Estupinan shooting wide followed by Buonanotte breaking free and racing towards goal.
Only Navas was ahead of Buonanotte and one Forest defender closing. Buonanotte showed great awareness to realise he was about to be tackled, playing a square pass unselfishly to Mitoma on his left. Mitoma went for goal but was uncharacteristically off target, the shot going just wide of the opposite post.
The game became more stretched after that and I became increasingly worried Brighton were going to concede. You could see every Forest player was fighting for their club’s Premier League survival and the fans too were the definition of a 12th man.
A nasty injury to Williams brought the noise levels down for a moment. Gibbs-White crossed and in the resulting goalmouth scramble, two Forest players collided. Williams was one, stretchered off and then taken to hospital with what turned out to be a broken jaw. We all wish him a speedy recovery.
Brighton were visibly starting to tire by now and it was an error from Caicedo which saw Forest take the lead on 69 minutes. Danilo tackled the Albion midfielder, broke forward and beat Steele. Another minor mistake which Forest to their credit made the Albion pay heavily for.
Colwill was next to give the ball away. Johnson benefitted this time, but luckily his shot was over Steele’s crossbar. At this point, it seemed there was only going to be one winner.
March though nearly came up trumps by equalising against the run of play with a shot which needed another really good save from Navas, making it two strong stops to counter the spillage for Buonanotte’s goal.
Forest responded by going on another powerful break to earn a corner. The set piece was delivered to the penalty spot, where it hit the hand of Dunk after the Brighton captain raised his arms high above his head.
VAR checked and the result was a second Forest penalty. Unlike the first, this one was successfully put in the back of the net by Gibss-White with 91 minutes played.
That injury to Williams meant there were still nine minutes after that. Brighton though could not find a way back, even as Deniz Undav had a goal disallowed for offside.
The noise which greeted the full time whistle from the Forest fans as they climbed from the relegation was something else. For Brighton, it was a case of file it under an evening to forget in difficult circumstances.
Onwards and upwards to Wolves, where fatigue apparently played less of an issue!
Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony
