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Neco Williams was a very relieved man at the final whistle after his Nottingham Forest teammates held on against Crystal Palace to move a point further away from the relegation zone. The full-back produced a fantastic save and some amateur dramatics but was dismissed, having given away a penalty, in a game his side looked favourites to win.
Ismaïla Sarr scoring the resulting spot-kick to cancel out Morgan Gibbs-White’s opener was the only additional damage, as Forest showed their defensive muscle. If it was not for Palace currently living in striker purgatory, waiting for one to leave and a replacement to arrive, they may have made more of the one-man advantage, rather than extend their winless run to nine matches.
“We missed the No 9 in the box,” Oliver Glasner said. “We just showed how thin our nerves are. We lost a little bit of nerves, then we started to run with the ball. Everybody wanted to take the responsibility and then took wrong decisions. We lost the balls too easily and then it was the last 15-20 minutes. It was just a very bad game, to be honest. But we don’t want to blame anybody. The reason for this is our psychological situation over weeks and months now.”
There was plenty of animosity between the two clubs before kick-off. Forest took Palace’s place in the Europa League after last season’s FA Cup winners were demoted to the Conference League, creating a bitter feud. This week’s intense chase for Jean-Philippe Mateta’s services did little to bring harmony. His name appeared on the back page of the match programme but that is unlikely to be a regular feature because the French striker is heading to Milan instead, lured by a Serie A title battle rather than an English relegation fight.
The home supporters did their best to wind up the visitors with chants about their owner, Evangelos Marinakis, seen as a villain at Selhurst Park. Palace fans unveiled an offensive banner during the reverse fixture in August, leading to an FA misconduct charge to add extra spice to this clash. Marinakis was in attendance, potentially with Monday’s deadline day in mind. Their latest arrival, the goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, was paraded and Lorenzo Lucca among the subs, with Sean Dyche adding there “two or three” potential incomings.
The best way to infuriate opponents is to prevent them from scoring and then punishing them. Matz Sels saved smartly from Jefferson Lerma and within minutes Forest were ahead. Gibbs-White won a header from a corner and Palace failed to clear, the Forest man chested down and calmly finished, to further enliven an already raucous atmosphere.
Palace enjoyed some dangerous moments in the early stages as they attempted to get back into the game but lacked confidence and conviction in a relatively open first half. It is understandable for a team that have lost their captain, Marc Guéhi, and Mateta, while Adam Wharton was suspended, forcing Glasner to name only seven subs, including two goalkeepers. Glasner had no recognised striker, so will be desperate for the Jørgen Strand Larsen deal to be completed.
With Forest cruising to the break, Williams made the bizarre decision to palm Lerma’s header away. Never has there been an easier red card and penalty to award, despite the defender pretending the ball hit him in the face. Sarr did the rest from the spot to reinvigorate the away end and silence the majority. Victory would have taken Forest level on points with Palace but that was not a concern after losing a man.
Williams apologised for his error at the break and Sean Dyche reacted by making three substitutions at half time, including a debut for Angus Gunn, who is effectively now the fourth-choice goalkeeper, replacing the injured Sels. Dyche elected to sit back and give Palace all the possession, leaving Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus as the only potential attacking outlets.
Forest mixed up disciplined defending by doing everything they could to aggravate Palace with the ambition of levelling up numbers. Lerma and Yeremy Pino got heated with some pushing on Forest players, while Igor Jesus sought a card, claiming he had been pulled back when chasing a through ball but he undoubtedly made the most of it.
Christantus Uche was sent on to provide a focal point against Dyche’s 4-3-2 formation, which was holding firm as Palace failed to have a single shot on target in the second half. The hosts were slowing the game down as much as possible, Gunn showing his merits as delayer-in-chief, if nothing else.
“I think it has to be a point earned,” Dyche said. “It’s just an instinctive thing [from Williams]. We defended very well. I think that’s his [Williams] frustration is he knows it’s tough when you’re 10 v 11 but I thought the players were terrific.”
Forest had moments on the counter but were unable to make the returning Dean Henderson work too hard in the Palace goal, as the match petered out to leave 17th-placed Forest six points clear of West Ham.
