Much Ado about point
ASTON VILLA were left seething with rage as they were denied a leveller by a 96th-minute controversy. A TOUCH of Samba, plus a turn of speed, and Forest’s players were dancing to coach Sabri Lamouchi’s tune.
Substitutes Albert Adomah, Joao Carvalho and Samba Sow all contributed to a comeback which looked beyond the ho home side at half-time.
Adomah stepped out of th the dugout and int into the he headlines with th the quick-fire eq equaliser, his th third goal of the se season.
He had been on the pitch for 12 120 seconds be before running on to Carvalho’s th through ball and cancelling ou out Billy Bodin’s strike.
Not surprisingly, Pr Preston’s Alex Neil was as irr irritated as counterpart La Lamouchi was delighted.
Neil said: “In the first half we have four good chances an and we were utterly do dominant. We knew they wo would come out more ag aggressive and we need to be braver. I’m disappointed th that we didn’t win, fru frustrated, and their goal lo looked offside.”
Lamouchi disagreed as he hailed his players’ character while not holding back at the first-half show.
He said: “It was lucky for us to be just 1-0 at half-time but in the second half it was different.
“My players never give up, they have character.”
Bodin’s debut goal for Preston came at the City Ground last season, so Forest defenders know he packs a punch. Yet he was allowed time and space to go again after his first shot was blocked by Joe Worrall and made no mistake at the second attempt.
Even the most one-eyed Forest fan would have to accept that it had been coming despite three successive home clean sheets in all competitions. Preston were quicker, more dangerous, and more organised than their opponents. who had put together an unbeaten run of seven games.
Bodin forced an early save from Brice Samba, who bounced up instantly to deal with Josh Harrop’s follow-up and the scene was set.
One decent mass attack ended when Joe Lolley’s effort was blocked and the ball just failed to reach Lewis Grabban.
Lamouchi’s reaction at half-time was to throw on Sow then Carvalho and finally Adomah. It worked to cap quite a week for the Forest coach after the EFL Cup win over close rivals and neighbours Derby. NOTT’MFOREST PRESTON 2 ........ Shots on Target .........5 5 ........ Shots off Target .........5 5 ................Corners ................ 0 11 .................. Fouls .................... 7 5 ............... Offsides ................. 3 78.1 .. Passing Success % .. 73.9 421 ....... Total Passes ........ 403 51.6 ..... Possession % .....48.4 49.2..Territorial Adv % ..50.8