HANDS OFF STAR BURKE WARNS PHIL
PHILIPPE MONTANIER is expecting a busy few days before the transfer window shuts, but one player he does not expect to see leave the City Ground is Oliver Burke.
The 20-year-old winger scored his fourth goal of the season four minutes into stoppage time, showing his speed to burst into the penalty area and squeeze a shot past Robert Green from a tight angle.
By then Forest were holding onto a lead earned through Pajtim Kasami and Damien Perquis – who both scored their first goals for the club from corners – before Kalvin Phillips curled in a terrific 30-yard freekick to set up a tight finish.
After the job was done, Forest boss Montanier said he had been given assurances by chairman Fawaz Al-Hasawi that star player Burke will not be sold.
He added: “I hope it will be a busy transfer window. I think there will be more news on Monday or Tuesday and I hope to close some opportunities. But it is difficult because we are not alone.
“I don’t think anyone will leave the club except for some young players to get game time on loan in League One or League Two.
“Oliver Burke is a good player and also a very important player for us. It’s very important that he stays with us and I am confident he will.”
Forest announced at half-time that winger Jamie Paterson had been sold to Bristol City. Explaining the decision, Montanier said: “Jamie wants to have more game time. He’s not sure he would in our squad because there is a lot of competition in midfield.”
Forest’s set-piece dominance began with Burke flicking on a Henri Lansbury corner, forcing Green into a save.
Three minutes later and another left-wing Lansbury setpiece evaded the visitors’ defence and bounced up to Kasami, who side-footed the ball across goal and into the top corner.
Forest had been the better side but were given a warning when Pablo Hernandez slipped a pass into Marcus Antonsson, who shot low into the far corner, only for Stephen Henderson to make a good save diving to his left.
Half-time brought two developments – a bout of heavy rain and the news that Paterson had left.
The break also appeared to galvanise both the atmosphere and the tempo of what had been a lacklustre match.
Both sides then missed good chances – Ben Osborn for Forest and Hadi Sacko for Leeds – before an unmarked Perquis met Osborn’s delivery to score Forest’s tenth league goal in front of their supporters.
Phillips then came on for the visitors and scored an excellent free-kick, but in a frantic finale it was Burke who had the final say.
A frustrated Garry Monk, however, felt his side should have made it three away victories in a row.
The Leeds boss said: “We let ourselves down with some really poor individual errors. We gifted it to them, they were all soft goals.
“They were wasting time from 46 minutes. The first half we did not push hard enough. The second half we did but we have to be clinical.
“Had we stopped the sloppy goals we would have won that game for sure. Pretty much every game we’ve lost is because of ourselves and sloppy little mistakes.
“We were the only team looking to win the game. Forest did nothing in general play to really hurt us.
“We should have easily come away from here with a result.”