Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LOLLEY GOOD FOR HUGHTON
Joe’s late hit is perfect start for new boss and has Forest believing again
LUCKY Joe Lolley reckons his last-gasp winner could show Nottingham Forest a way back to their promotion dreams.
The flying winger scored the 90th-minute deflected goal that gave his side their first victory of the season at the fifth attempt.
It also got new boss Chris Hughton off to a flying start in his first game in charge – and Lolley feels that the omens are good.
Th e 28-year -old former Huddersfield favourite knows that Hughton has achieved two promotions to the
Premier League with Newcastle and Brighton, and said: “We hope he can make it a hat-trick.
“Potentially, we still see promotion as our aim, despite the poor start to the season before this win.
“Things could now turn our way. We have so many players who have played at the top level, and we have a big enough squad.
“We’ve been through a lot, with results and the sacking of Sabri Lamouchi, but that could make us emotionally stronger.
“At least we have made a good start under our new boss.”
The experienced Hughton will soon have additional armaments for the next of his seven games in 22 days, beginning with home encounters against Rotherham tomorrow and the Midlands showdown with Derby on Friday. Apart from the 13 new closeseason signings under the Lamouchi regime, Hughton has brought i n winger Anthony Knockaert on a three-month loan from Fulham and is hopeful the paperwork can be sorted out to include Po l i s h w i d e ma n Kamil Grosicki on loan from West Brom.
Lolley ’s goal took a wicked def lection off Bradley J ohnson to leave Blackburn keeper T h o ma s K a mi n s k i wrong-footed.
But as Lolley said: “I ’ve scored enough good goals to warrant one of those. Sometimes you need it to go in off someone’s backside. The win is just what we wanted.
“Looking back on last season when we fell away badly, maybe we brought that feeling into this season. Now we have started to believe in ourselves again.
“S abri and hi s st af f were brilliant and we were all sad to see them go, but the new boss has lifted the place with fresh ideas.
“We almost needed this to happen but no-one wanted to see Sabri go in the way he did.”
Rovers boss Tony Mowbray revealed he had warned his side about Lolley cutting in and getting in long-range efforts – just like he did at Ewood Park last year.
He also revealed that his match plans were dealt a blow when Derrick Williams and Joe Rothwell had to be ruled out due to self-isolation after contact with positive Covid cases.
Mowbray will also be without them for the match at Watford on Wednesday.
BLACKBURN: Kaminski 6, Nyambe 6, Lenihan 6, Ayala 7, Bell 7, Johnson 6, Evans 7, Buckley 6 (Chapman 67, 6), Brereton 6 (Brennan 80), Armstrong 6, Dolan 6 (Gallagher 52, 6).
Samba 6, Christie 6, Figueiredo 7, Mckenna 6, Ioannou 6, Yates 7, Colback 7 (Arter 49, 7), Lolley 7 (Soh 90), Freeman 6, Ameobi 8, Grabban 7 (Taylor 73, 6).