Nottingham Forest 2-1 Aston Villa: Premier League – live reaction | Nottingham Forest

Forest up to fourth – above Manchester City

Tim Pearson: “It’s gone from a first half of eighteenth century snooze to a second half John Grisham thriller!”

A comeback win that shows the spirit of Forest under Nuno. They responded so well to decisions going against them and Jhon Duran’s goal. Anthony Elanga has been the man to make the difference. A dreadful first half followed by a brilliant second half, and a fantastic result for Forest.

90+8 min: The ball falls to McGinn, and he can only blast it over. The Forest fans smell victory.

90+6 min: Villa are being patient in possession. Forest all back in a line, heavy numbers back.

90+4 min: Willy Boly comes on as Forest’s closer. This is a famous, important win in the offing. Villa have tired, visibly, sapped as Wood scored his disallowed goal.

Anderson wins the ball off Cash, and in the box. Was it a foul? Elanga has read the danger and smashes home. Forest are flying up to fourth!

90+2 min: Space at both ends but Forest look to have the more energy….

90 min: Late subs see Barkley and Maatsen come on. Seven minutes have been added on to for them to make an impact.

89 min: But wait a moment, Sels has to clear the ball behind, as McGinn’s cross arrows towards goal. Sels then punches clear the resultant corner. Was there a push? Gibbs-White and Konsa clashed but only briefly.

88 min: Fuelled by injustice, Forest have pushed on and on. Nuno’s team have real fortitude…

Pau Torres knocks behind, and Forest have a corner. Digne clears. This time, it comes back in, and Milenkovic nods in, crashing home. What a ball from Gibbs-White, Martinez ended up dropping the ball in the net. What a comeback from Forest.

85 min: The howls of noise. There’s grown men in Christmas jumpers calling the Premier League into question. Meanwhile, the Villa fans sing a hymn to VAR. Modern football, it’s great, isn’t it?

It’s a long, long wait. Diego Carlos looks to be playing on Elanga, and the boos ring out…it’s offside. A primal scream of rage greets the decision.

Cash volleys across from the byline and Forest can only beat the ball away. But it turns into a wildcat attack. Hudson-Odoi threads to Gibbs-White, across to Elanga, and to Wood, who scores….there’s a VAR wait, to boos.

79 min: Elanga is fouled, and a free-kick comes in, and Gibbs-White nods across but Martinez cradles the ball in his hands with ease.

78 min: Elanga on, Dominguez off for Forest. Nuno has tried to inject some pace.

77 min: Rogers and Anderson has been an intriguing individual battle. Both going at it, Rogers having the better of it.

75 min: Some really nice stuff being played by Villa now. Passing it around. Forest look a bit leggy. One of these teams was playing in Leipzig on Wednesday.

73 min: Duran is off, and on comes Watkins. Duran looks as if he wouldn’t have minded completing the 90.

71 min: Villa have toughed this out. Forest are a hard, physical team. McGinn, who likes the rough stuff, gets tangled up with Ola Aina. Duran’s header was a beauty.

70 min: Jack B on the former Damian Martinez: “RE Arsenal selling Martinez, with hindsight you might say they should have kept hold. But remember he’d been a benchwarmer for almost a decade, then Maupay injures Leno and Martinez gets a run. He does pretty well and suddenly the player who had no prospects is getting big bids. Arsenal would have been over the moon to be getting 20 million of pure FFP profit for him, with absolutely no guarantee that he was just in a few months burst of form before dropping back to his mid-table Championship quality level he’d shown before.”

68 min: Forest changes: Jota Silva and Morato on, Murillo and Ryan Yates off.

67 min: The City Ground in its usual rebellion against officialdom as Hudson-Odoi looks to be fouled by Duran. The replay suggests otherwise.

65 min: Ken Houghton: “The dude from Dexy’s Midnight Runners? Did they have more than one hit on your side of the pond?” They had several, Ken. Geno was No 1, as was Eileen but the first two albums were huge hits. And the third, Don’t Stand Me Down, is a legendary brilliant flop. They’re still around, too.

64 min: And that goal doesn’t happen without Emi Martinez’s brilliance.

Of course, of course. He starts, he scores. Rogers’ run leads the ball to McGinn and a dinked ball is headed like thunder past Sels. What a player Duran is.

61 min: Arsenal selling Martinez: will never understand that one.

60 min: Hudson-Odoi is knocked over by Konsa, and the Forest fans boo the officials. It’s a corner instead…and Dominguez stoops. It’s surely going over but Martinez stops it going over. He seems to do this save every week, when they are near-miracles. Forest can’t believe it.

59 min: Ollie Watkins was fit enough to be on the bench. Villa need something to change here. They’ve been blunt aside from the odd Duran flourish.

57 min: Hudson-Odoi and Nico Williams take up the cudgels, both run into traffic. Williams’ shot whistles wide.

55 min: Scott Blair gets in touch: “Well, if we’re going down this road…there was a bit of Brian Clough in Robert Lowell….”

54 min: Duran throws in a fresh-air effort, and then his overhead is perfectly executed aside from being just over. He fits the term “mercurial, the lad”.

52 min: Villa are at least trying to step matters up.

50 min: Mark Turner calls it: “A fascinating tactical battle, Brian.”

Yeah, it’s still awful.

49 min: Today’s Premier League, at a glance.

48 min: It’s still physical, John McGinn legging up Ola Aina but not getting booked for what looked like preventing a counter.

47 min: To continue the game’s early 1980s overtones – and style:

I never heard about Oscar Wilde
I don’t talk about Brendan Behan
I don’t think about Sean O’Casey
I don’t care about George Bernard Shaw
He doesn’t care about Samuel Beckett
He won’t talk about Eugene O’Neill
Edna O’Brien and Laurence Sterne

Oscar Wilde and Brendan Behan
Sean O’Casey, George Bernard Shaw
Samuel Beckett, Eugene O’Neill
Edna O’Brien and Laurence Sterne
Sean Kavanaugh and Sean McCann
Benedict Keilly, Jimmy Hiney
Frank O’Connor and Catherine Rhine

(Thanks to Kevin Rowland)

46 min: *Des Lynam look to camera*. Oh yes, there’s a game on while we discuss the literature of the Enlightenment and beyond. We begin with Jhon Duran getting hobbled by Murillo.

David C Hunter: “Naughty John Bruton, detention for you. Thackeray was the rival to Dickens. For a non-rival to Sterne try Samuel Richardson. Plenty of dull passages there.”

Mary Waltz: “Nothing happening? C’mon, Tristram waxing eloquent about his nose is nothing if not action packed!”

Geoff Wignall gets in touch: “Thackeray’s novels might well have meandered interminably but I doubt he wrote many 18th century ones – on account of being born in 1811.”

Yeah, I noticed that but he is byword for ramblings, right?

It’s not been great, but it’s been even. Neither manager prepared to bet the farm, and the flair players have been quiet.

45+1 min: Three minutes added on, and it continues to be bitty,

45 min; Sels makes his first save, this time from Cash.

43 min: All Villa. They have a head of steam but not much creativityt happening.

42 min: Murillo is back, and then gets in the way of a Rogers pass. Tielemans tries to send Cash away but Villa instead break.

40 min: Rogers, having his breakout season, is playing well. Murillo is down for Forest, holding his foot. That hurt. And it could be it for the Brazilian.

39 min: Villa go closest yet. McGinn chip, and Konsa’s header drifts wide.

37 min: How did Anderson get away with that shirt pull on Rogers? We will never know unless we watch that show with Howie Webb and Magic Mike Owen.