Forest Find Form, Untie Unruly United

Rainy Saturday Evening

When the heavens had opened earlier in the Afternoon, many excepted that this clash, like the Merseyside Derby may face postponement. Rare 'red weather alerts' had been in place across large regions of the UK as Storm Darragh

wreaked havoc across the country. Given Manchester United's well known issues regarding their current stadium, namely, the waterfall which cascades unto fans after heavy rain, the game's being played was somewhat of a miracle. However, United fans already knew that the upcoming fixture against high-flying Forest would be tough, which was only exacerbated by the biblical winds. Lining up in the tunnel before the match, the Forest players seemed, as they have so often recently, comfortable and relaxed. Given their three nil defeat on Wednesday, also in Manchester, to City you would be forgiven for expecting them to lay off their direct tactics and come into the game hoping for a tight game and maybe the chance of a point. But, under Nuno, that is not their way, allowing Manchester United vast quantities of possession means the Tricky Trees are always looking forward and they scored three goals today in a fine fashion. 

Forest won a corner within the first minute and a half of the game, and the enormous Serbian, Nikola Milenkovic managed to jump unchallenged and head into the corner (you wouldn't find me going up against him, but maybe Ruben Amorim's players still have a timid approach to  playing football aggressively). Andre Onana didn't even move, which turned out to be a repeated motif across the 90 minutes. Following the goal, Forest sat back, possibly thinking they could go all the way in such a fashion, but thankfully, it wasn't to be, and the crowd around the world were treated to a festival of football. 

The momentum swung United's way and they continued battering Forest's goal in a similar fashion to the aforementioned winds which attacked all corners over the United Kingdom. This may have swung in United's favour, as Garnacho's weak effort rebounded off Sels; Rasmus Hojlund tucked the ball away from 5 yards out. 

Reining in the Red Devils

Forest started the second half just as they had started the first: they sprang out the traps, quite literally, when intercepting a misplaced pass in the midfield, before Morgan Gibbs-White hit a Ferocious shot, which seemed as if it was heading straight into the goalkeepers arms. But when the swaz on the ball redirected it from Onana, the Cameroonian remained rooted to the spot. 

Unlike the aftermath of the first goal, this time, the players from Nottingham knew they had to get another goal to take the three points back to Nottingham. Who else but Chris Wood to step up and almost certainly ensure victory in a strange a fashion as any, when his looping header was almost ignored by the defender on the line. Forest had doubled their advantage, and even a glorious finish from the talismanic Fernandes (who on another day would have been awarded man of the match for his performance), was not enough to stop Forest claiming the Victory, extending their lead over United to 6 points, and putting themselves within touching distance of Manchester City and Champions League qualification.

A New Reign Over Old Rivals

When Forest occupied last place in the Premier League around this time last season, even the idea that they would go and beat Manchester United twice in a row (in the league) would be inconceivable. The last time that happened? 1992, and the two manager in the dugout? You guessed it: Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough. The two legendary bosses have seen the peripeteia of their respective

sides since they left, and the two Portuguese men brought in to manage the clubs now obviously have the end goal of repeating former glories. Amorim has not quite had to start you would expect, and if in his 'managerial bounce' period, the results are as wildly erratic, it may not be the long and glorious reign, United fans will have hoped for.

Nuno, on the other hand, seems destined to finally take this forest side back into Europe, the Champions League so close to the City Ground. Forest fans will be ecstatic even with qualification to the conference league. Nuno is a man who can do no wrong in the city now and will certainly hope his players can repeat the trick, at the same time, next week, again inconsistent Aston Villa.