Nottingham Forest and Watford share spoils in tight affair

Nottingham Forest ended their three-game losing streak after they drew 0-0 with Watford at the City Ground.

The first huge chance of the game came from the home side in the 15th minute. Joe Lolley played in Yuri Ribiero who ran in behind Jeremy Ngakia. The full-back’s attempted ball took a knick off a Watford man and fell to Harry Arter, he sliced his effort, but fell onto the head of Lyle Taylor who glanced it wide.

Watford could have also opened the scoring three minutes later. Domingos Quina’s clever turn tricked Anthony Knockaert and allowed him to shift the ball onto his left foot. His cross into the box eventually found Hornets’ top scorer Joao Pedro after being punched away by Forest keeper Brice Samba. Samba was equal to the effort and denied the Brazilian with a great save.

With eight minutes of the first half remaining, a through ball from Knockaert split the pair of Kiko Feminia and Nathaniel Chalobah and found Cafu. The Portuguese midfielder played it across the face of goal and picked out Lolley, however his shot took a knick off Ngakia and went away for a corner.

After the hour mark Forest went close again. Cafu picked up the ball and surged forward, he played it to Taylor who then attempted to lay him off. But Christian Kabasele got a toe to Taylor’s ball, denying Cafu what would have surely been a tap in.

But they went close again moments after. Knockaert put a cross into the 18 yard box that just went over the head of Taylor, and forced Kabasele to clear the danger.

There was then a call for a red card in the 83rd minute. Nathaniel Chalobah, who was already on a yellow card for a foul on Cafu earlier in the match, put in a strong challenge on Arter. Referee David Webb was surrounded by incensed Forest players following the challenge, but did not send off the ex-Chelsea man.

The 83rd minute also saw Watford with the last meaningful attempt on goal. Joe Worrall cleared away an Ismailla Sarr cross into the path of Troy Deeney, who was sitting on the edge of the area. But the striker rifled his shot wide and over.

Of the two sides you would argue that Chris Hughton’s side would be more satisfied with the draw. After a run of three straight defeats this will be seen as a positive result by the Forest contingency.

Forest’s back four were solid throughout the evening, they shut off the threat of Watford’s frontline restricting them to just six shots on goal.

The defensive display was helped by the return of centre-back Worrall. He made his first start in over two months last night, lining up alongside Ribiero, Cyrus Christie and Tobias Figueiredo. A backline that, swapping Christie out for Matty Cash, had worked well under ex-manager Sabri Lamouchi.

And equally it worked well for Hughton too. With an array of defensive options available, could this be a back four which the Forest manager favours in their forthcoming matches?

There was impressive performances for the wingers Lolley and Knockaert, and for Cafu too, who made his first Forest start. Their work rate never dropped throughout the night and on many occasions the trio asked questions of the Watford defence, whether that would be playing balls into the box, playing key passes, or leading Forest charges.

However once again Forest lacked that cutting edge, which can be highlighted by the fact they didn’t register a single shot on target from the 13 they took. It now extends Forest’s goal drought to four games.

Despite that Hughton will be hoping that the draw can be boost their confidence as they continue their tough run of games, starting with Reading on Saturday lunchtime.

For Watford however they missed a golden chance to move to the top of the Championship, following Bournemouth and Norwich’s defeats to Preston an Luton respectively.

The Hornets have won just won of their eight away games this season, which is not good reading for a side in third and aiming for an instant return to the Premier League.

Something thing which will also concern Vladimir Ilic will be a possible injury to key man Craig Cathcart, the centre-half pulled up a minute before the end of the game and was taken off.

On a sidetone it was a historic day for the club and in particular for Troy Deeney. The Watford captain played his 404th game for the club last night, which moved him into the club’s top ten all time appearance list.

Watford turn their attention to Saturday, where 2000 fans will be able to watch their clash with Cardiff City at Vicarage Road.