Nottingham Forest seek first victory of the season at high-flying Blackburn Rovers

Chris Hughton will hope to kick-start his Nottingham Forest tenure with a win at high-flying Blackburn Rovers.

The Reds are without a point in the Championship so far this season, suffering four consecutive defeats at the hands of QPR, Cardiff City, Huddersfield Town and Bristol City.

A poor start to the season – following on from last season’s dramatic failure to reach the Play-Offs – contributed to the end for Sabri Lamouchi.

It took just thirty minutes for Forest to announce the arrival of Chris Hughton as Lamouchi’s replacement at the City Ground.

The 61-year-old – who has won promotion to the top-flight with Newcastle United, Brighton & Hove Albion and Norwich City – has since had two weeks to prepare his squad for today’s trip to Lancashire.

Blackburn Rovers will, however, not provide an easy opportunity to provide an immediate ‘new manager bounce-back’ feeling.

Aside from an opening day defeat to AFC Bournemouth, Tony Mowbray’s Blackburn side are enjoying a strong start to the season.

Sitting in seventh, just two points outside the Play-Offs, Rovers have recorded two wins and a draw.

The Lancashire side proved their talent in front of goal by backing it up with a 5-0 home victory over Wycombe Wanderers and a 4-0 win at struggling Derby County.

Before the international break, though, Rovers were held 0-0 by Cardiff City.

Team news

Deadline day signing Anthony Knockaert is unlikely to make his Forest debut having signed just hours before kick-off.

Hughton will, however, be boosted by the timely return of Scott McKenna and Harry Arter.

Cafu could make his debut for Forest and Alex Mighten and Nicholas Ioannou will be keen to retain their starting 11 spots; Joe Worrall, Fouad Bachirou and Tyler Blackett all miss out through injury.

Rovers made four deadline day signings ahead of today’s match, adding Barry Douglas, Tom Trybull, Harvey Elliott and Aynsley Pears to their squad.

Derrick Williams (isolation), Elliott Bennett and Joe Rankin-Costello will all miss out.

Lewis Holtby will be absent following the birth of his daughter, but Darragh Lenihan is fit to return.

Tony Mowbray wary of Forest threat

“It’s a team with a new coach in Chris Hughton, who’s a very experienced manager and someone who knows this league,” he said.

“They have some very talented players and were in the top six of this division pretty much all of last season until the last kick of the season.”

He added: “It’s an opportunity for us to get the three points at home, but it’ll be against the best Nottingham Forest side because Chris has had two weeks to work with them and to get them ready.

“They’ll all be trying really hard to impress, so it’s about us getting the performance levels right.”

Chris Hughton pleased to have had time to prepare squad

He said: “It has been good, it has been good to get out on the grass again and on the training pitch as that is the most enjoyable part of what we do.

“It has been a good opportunity to get to know the players, it takes a while but I have been grateful that it has been an international week and it has been a good opportunity to get some of the work done.”

On the threat of Blackburn Rovers, he added: “They will be a big test on any occasion but they are in good form at the moment.

“They are in a good place, with good rhythm and they have a lot of consistency in the team having not made many changes.

“The simple fact that they have got off to a good start, scoring a lot of goals, means that it is a tough game to come into.

“But that is the challenge, we are up against a team that is in good form and we are conscious of that.”

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