Forest progress in Carabao Cup - on-the-whistle report

Our interest in this season’s Carabao Cup ended at the first hurdle on Wednesday evening as two second-half goals gave Nottingham Forest victory in our third round tie at the City Ground.

After a tepid first half in which neither side created much, the home side struck twice in seven minutes through Renan Lodi and Jesse Lingard – both netting their first goals for Forest – and, although they had Orel Mangala sent off for two yellow cards late on, we couldn’t find a way back into the game and exited the competition.

Debutant Fraser Forster was called into action on nine minutes when Davinson Sanchez’s clearance deflected off Taiwo Awoniyi and hit the post, Lingard pouncing on the rebound to head goalwards but Forster was quickly across to parry away. He then stood tall to block Ryan Yates’ effort from a corner mid-way through the half. Our best chance of the half came on 31 minutes when Ivan Perisic’s drive across the goal came out to Matt Doherty whose shot was well saved by Wayne Hennessey.

Forster was called into action again shortly after the break, parrying away Lingard’s powerful shot, but he could do nothing to keep out Lodi’s right-foot curler which gave Forest a 50th-minute lead. He did, however, make another big stop to deny Sam Surridge two minutes later but we fell further behind on 57 minutes following a counter-attack, Surridge heading former Spur Serge Aurier’s cross back across goal for Lingard to glance into the bottom corner.

We switched it up just before the hour mark with Richarlison, Dejan Kulusevski and Bryan Gil all entering the game but it was the home side who continued to create the chances, Brennan Johnson running through on goal but denied by Forster. The game took a twist when Mangala was sent off for two yellow cards in the space of seven minutes but we still struggled to create any real clear chances. Djed Spence had a header tipped over by Hennessey and Richarlison saw an effort disallowed for offside, but that was as good as it got.

Reaction on SPURSPLAY

Match data

Goals: Forest – Lodi 50, Lingard 57.

Yellow cards: Nottingham Forest – Lingard, Mangala; Spurs – Bissouma, Kulusevski, Dier, Bentancur.

Red card: Nottingham Forest - Mangala.

Referee: Peter Bankes.

Venue: The City Ground, Nottingham.

Weather: Partly cloudy, moderate breeze, 10 degrees.

Attendance: 28,354.