Key events
Show only key events
Please enable JavaScript to use this feature
Thanks for joining me tonight.
Ben Fisher was at the City Ground tonight. Here is his report.
Steve Cooper: “It’s definitely a step in the right direction. It’s not the main ambition to be drawing games at home and not having a lot of the ball.
“I know we have a lot of things to improve, but we have to focus on the positive things.
“We were deeper, we were more compact. Was it my way of playing? No, but it worked.
“For all the possession that Villa had, they didn’t create a lot of chances. We could have done better at the counter.
“This is a completely different sport to the championship. If it didn’t change a little bit, I think it would be naive from the coach’s point of view. I haven’t seen a group of players who don’t show a will, an attitude to incorporate ideas. I’m seeing a group of guys who really want to do well. Our job is to build an identity and a team capable of winning points.
“I told the players that we have to start giving something back to the fans.
“This is a difficult coaching challenge, and for the players. I’m finding out about the players, their characters. The motivation for me is to get through this period and make this season as successful as we can.”
Carragher says Coutinho is “a shadow of the player he was”. This is cheerful.
Roy Keane notes that the game was completely awful. I really hated having to look at him.
Ryan Yates: “That’s a good point. We want to win the game but we had to stop the rot.”
What was the pre-game plan? “Do it for the fans, ourselves, everyone connected to the club.
“I thought Dennis came in at the front and did really well.
“Really frustrating [to concede equaliser], this is football that is the Premier League. We just have to look at the positives.
“I felt I was fouled in the build-up [to the equaliser] but i can’t do anything about it. We have to defend it better.”
Worried about conceding a penalty? “Yeah, it was because you never know. Sometimes they go for it, sometimes they go against it.
“We’ve just shown massive togetherness. The City Ground is at its best when the fans are connected to the players on the pitch.”
0.28 XG for Forest and 0.72 for Villa. I’m not a stats guy, but this shows how underwhelming the game was.
Forest need to find a front three that works. Johnson-Dennis-Gibbs-White looked very much like three individuals.
Cooper goes for a walk around the City Ground, applauding each side of the stadium.
Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper waves to the fans. Photograph: Rui Vieira/AP
Updated at 10.05pm BST
Forest are off the bottom of the table, which will give them a huge morale boost after a tough spell on and off the pitch.
Full time: Nottingham Forest 1-1 Aston Villa
It certainly wasn’t a classic. Villa were the better team and will be disappointed they couldn’t find a winner. Forest were certainly better in defense and looked more structured as a unit. The point gives Cooper something to build on.
90 + 2 mins: Buendia bundles over Yates near the Forest line to end any sort of threat.
90 minutes: three added minutes.
89 min: Archer leads the charge and eventually gets a cross in from the left which McKenna blocks. Surridge fouls Mings, giving Villa the chance to send a late free-kick into the box.
O’Brien prepared to replace Gibbs-White.
Updated at 9.47pm BST
87 mins: Henderson plays with the back of his socks completely ripped off. It looks like it could be cold for a goalkeeper in the winter.
85 min: Henderson hits the ball straight out of play. I think they would take the point right now.
83 mins: Watkins runs at Yates and the Forest captain sees his best option is to cross the striker to take him out, earning a booking for his troubles. The free-kick is sent into the area but Archer heads the ball wide of the goal.
Bad news… “I hate to disappoint Tom Sullivan, but the few times this Peter Oh has been to Dallas,” says Peter Oh, have been confined to his enormous airport. I probably know more about Dallas, the Northern Ireland and Leeds United player, than I do about the Texan metropolis.
“And I’ll take this opportunity to state that when it comes to football fan puns, there’s only one Peter Oh!”
81 min: Villa lines up a free kick 25 meters from the goal. Buendia has the ball. Needless to say, he hits the wall. how tedious
79 mins: It’s a very disciplined display from Forest. Cooper knows a point will at least give them something to build on after five defeats.
77 min: Dendoncker comes on for McGinn. Archer is also set to enter Villa.
75 min: Gibbs-White takes a deep free-kick from the left but Villa clears it easily. They break quickly but Henderson kicks out to end the attack.
Ramsey and Williams have a shoving match and go head to head. Taylor shows Ramsey a yellow card. Douglas Luiz then heads Johnson. All very silly
It’s time to push. Photograph: James Williamson/AMA/Getty Images
“Two ex-Watford players on the bill tonight… we Watford fans need something to smile about,” says Gareth Williams.
A great night for the Pozzos.
Updated at 9.42pm BST
73 mins: Mings welcomes Surridge into the game by getting in behind him. Forest try to be clever with the free kick and it comes to nothing.
Phew. Photograph: James Williamson/AMA/Getty Images
Updated at 9.43pm BST
71 mins: Kouyate takes a touch and hits a shot from 20 yards, but it’s close to Martinez who holds.
Surridge replaces Dennis. No Awoniyi…
69 mins: Forest avoid fun at all costs by playing with 10 men behind the ball whenever Villa have possession.
Watkins gets to the byline ahead of Cook and flicks the ball back into the box for McGinn who decides to go for a header despite the ball bouncing off his knee. A strange decision by the Villa boss.
67 mins: Ings and Watkins against Cook and McKenna could be fun for the next 25 minutes.
65 min: Forest have their first real moment of possession of the half, finishing with Toffolo’s deep cross that is cleared. The ball goes back to Villa, culminating in Gibbs-White trying to curl a shot from 25 yards with the outside of his boot into the top corner, but it goes wide.
Coutinho is replaced by Ings.
63 min: It’s been all Villa since the break. Time to bring in Awoniyi for Dennis to bring a more physical presence in the final third to help hold the ball?
Does Peter Oh do funerals too? asks Justin Kavanagh. “His puns will be the death of us, if watching this game doesn’t prematurely age us all first.”
If the price is right.
61 min: A corner from Villa is sent back to Luiz, the receiver, who crosses left-footed for Watkins at the back post, the ball is headed home but Henderson makes a good save to his left.
Konsa appeals for a penalty after being tackled by Yates in the box but the referee doesn’t have it, which is lucky for Forest as contact is made.
59 mins: To be fair, Aurier looked decent at right-back, but I think the lack of fitness in the game meant he had to come off, especially as he was on the bench.
57 mins: Ramsey fumes with Yates after being pushed and Taylor is forced to step in, conceding Villa a free-kick that is nothing.
Williams replaces Aurier at right back. The Ivorian appears to have a problem with his right leg, evidenced by the removal of a load of straps.
55 min: Forest get to the edge of the box but struggle to find a gap in Villa’s defense and the visitors fall apart.
Nottingham Forest’s Emmanuel Dennis in action with Aston Villa’s Douglas Luiz and Philippe Coutinho (right). Photo: Molly Darlington/Action Images/Reuters
Updated at 9.20pm BST
53 mins: The town looks more alive here. Can Forest match them?
51 mins: Ramsey turns Cook easily into the box, allowing him to cross for Watkins, but McKenna reads the danger and saves a goal. Watkins doesn’t help Ramsey by being offside for a long time, forcing him to delay the pass.
Forest breaks Johnson but McGinn pulls him off and is booked.
49 min: Coutinho bursts into the box and takes aim from inside the box, but is off balance when he shoots and the ball flies over the crossbar.
47 mins: Villa get an early corner thanks to good work from Cash. Luiz sends it into the area from the right but it is cleared.
second half
Like the forest looking for a new media boss… here we go again!
“I had a classmate in high school for a year named Peter Oh, whose sensibility reminds me of a frequent contributor to MBM. You can ask him if he went to Dallas Jesuit in 1987, and if he did do, tell him that Tom Sullivan says it?
Peter! Please tell me it’s you and we’re connecting people.
“It’s an ugly game, Will,” says Ben Watson, “but as a Forest fan I’d take it all day for us not to lose.
“The cash has stuck too many times in Toffolo’s side, but other than that, and our complete inability to defend the edge of the box, we’re fine.
“JLingz to get the winner?”
Nobody cares how a team wins, that’s for sure. Lingard will arrive at some point but has looked underwhelming since the signings.
Peter Oh is available for weddings, christenings and bat mitzvahs: “Villa’s back four are young at heart and enjoying a healthy cash flow, but they will need to turn the Mings around quickly if they are to avoid the Konsa sequences of give less than 100% against a given opponent.”
nostalgic
11 – Ashley Young scored his first Premier League goal for Aston Villa since May 2011 against Wigan, 11 years and 156 days ago. In fact, only goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel (37 and 336 d) has scored a Premier League goal for Aston Villa at an older age than Young (37 and 93 d). longevity pic.twitter.com/mjfYn2CdY0
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 10, 2022
Kári Tulinius says: “The forests are much improved. It’s the first time I’ve seen them this season and…