SWANS SUNK
Flying Forest could be real deal at last!
ALFA SE ME DO’ Slate strike clipped the wings of high-flying Swansea and cemented a firm foundation for Nottingham Forest to mount a promotion challenge.
The Forest substitute hit the Championship leaders with a suck er punch to deny Steve Cooper’s side a record-breaking start to the season.
The 22- year- old finished off a rapid breakaway to register his first goal since his summer loan move from Benfica.
Stylish Forest are now six games unbeaten since their opening day defeat at home to West Brom, but boss Sabri Lamouchi is not letting himself dream of being the man to take his sleeping giant of a club back to England’s top-flight.
‘I don’t want to think about the future,’ he said.
‘I only know a little bit about the place and a little bit about my job, and I just enjoy it.
‘I have a nice group, they trust me and for the moment they are doing a good job.
‘I want my players to play with the personality, no regrets. We were playing the best team in the league at this moment. We deserved this victory, it was so difficult to imagine this performance before the game.’
Forest hadn’t been beaten since the first day of the season but head coach Lamouchi opted to wield the axe on the eleven who nicked a draw with Preston last time out.
Yuri Ribeiro, Joao Carvalho, Matty Cash, Samba Sow and Albert Adomah were all brought in to wreck Swansea’s unbeaten start to the campaign.
Despite the hosts dominating the possession stats in the opening 15 minutes, it was Forest who carved out the best opportunity to break the deadlock.
Sammy Ameobi latched onto a delicate Carvalho flick and fired a shot on t arget but Freddie Woodman passed his early test in the Swansea goal.
Lamouchi was left rueing another missed opportunity moments later when Ben Watson headed a halfcleared corner back into the box for Lewis Grabban to swivel and volley onto the bar.
Swansea survived to go in level at half-time but almost gifted Forest an opener when Bersant Celina’s loose back pass was pounced on by Grabban.
Woodman stood firm to block his effort from a tight angle, but hapless Celina was hauled off moments after the error.
Forest sensed an opportunity to send a statement to the rest of the Championship with a victory over the early pacesetters.
Swansea made a rare push for a winner as they went in search of their best ever start to a league season, but they were caught with a s ucker punch wit h j ust f i ve minutes to go.
Grabban picked up the ball deep in his own half after intercepting George Byers’ pass and surged down the right wing.
Grimes chased him back but he eventually left the midfielder in his wake on the edge of the six-yard box and crossed for Semedo to beat Woodman with a bouncing effort at the far post.
Swansea pushed for an equaliser, but it was too little, too late and they had to swallow a first league defeat at home since Boxing Day.
‘I think we had issues at the top end of the pitch,’ said Swansea head coach Cooper.
‘I think we had enough possession and good positions, but on the day we lacked a little bit of creativity, a little bit of risk-taking and a little bit of confidence to go and make a difference up there.’