Brighton 2 – 1 N Forest

Vitor Pereira remains on the lookout for his first league win in charge of Nottingham Forest after his side fell to a 2-1 defeat against Brighton.

A frantic opening 15 minutes saw all three goals, with Diego Gomez and Danny Welbeck scoring either side of a Morgan Gibbs-White beauty to secure the three points for the Seagulls.

With Burnley, West Ham and Tottenham all losing this weekend, the defeat meant that Forest failed to make any headway on their relegation rivals, with just 10 games left in the Premier League campaign.

Having ended a run of six games without a win against Brentford last time out, Fabian Hurzeler’s men emerged full of confidence and came flying out of the traps. Their early dominance paid off as Gomez perfectly cut across the ball from the corner of the penalty area to arrow one inside the far post for a deserved lead.

That appeared to wake Forest up, as they responded in some style. Igor Jesus’s immaculate dummy on the far side unlocked the Brighton defence before he found Gibbs-White, who expertly curled home from distance past Bart Verbruggen.

Any hope Pereira may have had of that inspiring his side quickly diminished though, as within two minutes Welbeck added his 11th goal of the season to restore the hosts’ advantage.

Brighton continued to push for a third, but were unable to get past Matz Sels, offering the visitors a chance to make the most of several dangerous counter-attacks.

However, the equaliser eluded Pereira’s men, meaning that Forest have managed just one goal from 66 attempts over their last three Premier League games.

Forest remain 17th in the Premier League, failing to leapfrog Tottenham, who fell to defeat at Fulham. Meanwhile, Brighton edge closer to the top half as their second consecutive win means they climb to 11th.

More to follow…

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