Neco Williams was a very relieved man at the final whistle after his Nottingham Forest teammates held on against Crystal Palace to move a point further away from the relegation zone. The full-back produced a fantastic save and some amateur dramatics but was dismissed, having given away a penalty, in a game his side looked favourites to win.
Ismaïla Sarr scoring the resulting spot-kick to cancel out Morgan Gibbs-White’s opener was the only additional damage, as Forest endured an afternoon on the backfoot. If it was not for Palace currently living in striker purgatory, waiting for one to leave and a replacement to arrive, they may have made more of the one-man advantage, rather than extend their winless run to nine matches.
There was plenty of animosity between the two clubs before kick-off. Forest took Crystal Palace’s place in the Europa League after the Eagles were demoted to the Conference League, creating a bitter feud in the process. This week’s intense chase for Jean-Philippe Mateta’s services did little to bring harmony. His name appeared on the back page of the match programme but that is unlikely to be a regular feature because the French striker is seemingly heading to Milan instead, lured by a Serie A title battle, rather than English relegation fight.
