Brighton (H) 30/11/25

Nottingham Forest 0-2 Brighton and Hove Albion

                                                         De Cuyper 45+1'

                                                         Tzimas 86'

After leading his side to a five game unbeaten run across all competitions, including winning three on the bounce, Sean Dyche’s next test was Brighton at the City Ground. After Forest thrashed the Seagulls 7-0 in the same fixture last season, Brighton would be after some revenge.

The Forest manager made one forced change from his side that won at Anfield. The injured Murillo was replaced by fellow Brazilian Morato. Fabian Hurzeler made three changes to his team that beat Brentford last time out. The Seagulls hadn’t lost in three but they were without a win on the road since late September.

From the off, the visitors completely dominated. The Forest defence seemed to be all over the place as Brighton got themselves in lots of promising areas, creating many chances to take the lead. One of their better opportunities was blocked just before the line by Sangare from a close range shot from Rutter. Forest just couldn’t deal with Minteh on the right, who was Brighton’s main outlet.

In the opening 20 minutes, the Seagulls registered 9 shots but they couldn’t find the one to take the lead. In a quick break, Forest came close to taking an undeserved lead. On the left, Dominguez intercepted a poor pass from Wieffer before skipping past him. The Argentinian saw the run of Gibbs-White in the box but the cross was slightly too high so the Englishman had to adjust and come up with an acrobatic scissor-kick effort. He did well to make contact but the attempt flashed just wide of the right post.

This effort sparked something in Forest as they finally managed to get a foothold in the game. However, they couldn’t do anything with their possession. Both sides looked to be going into the break level but just before the stroke of half-time, Brighton took the lead. Dominguez attempted to head the ball clear after the Seagulls recycled a free kick but the ball only landed to Wieffer on the right. He found Rutter who turned before finding the unmarked run of De Cuyper in the box to roll first time past Sels. Brighton have only lost 1 out of their last 20 when leading at half-time.

In need of something to brighten Forest up, Sean Dyche turned to his bench at half time. Hudson-Odoi and Hutchinson would be bought on to try and make an impact. Brighton started the half in control until the hosts turned up the tempo, looking for an equaliser. Just like against Manchester United and Leeds, Hutchinson was Forest’s main creator but his crosses were either poor or no red shirt got on the end of them.

Brighton had a brilliant opportunity to make their last 20 minutes less stressful but to Forest’s rescue was their goalkeeper. From the left, De Cuyper whipped in a ball which sailed over the head of Morato for Gomez to strike from close range. Sels got down well to save with one arm before Morato intercepted a poor touch from Tzimas who tried to get onto the rebound. The ball then landed to Kadioglu but once again, Sels made a good save to help his side.

Just moments later, Sels was involved in Forest’s attacking play. He found Hutchinson on the right who got past Kadioglu and into the box. Once he reached the byline, he pulled back for Igor Jesus but he was denied his first Premier League goal by the outstretched leg of Verbruggen. This was the start of a period of pressure Forest put onto Brighton. However, the Seagulls held on and defended resolutely before sealing the win at the other end. A goal kick from Verbruggen bounced over everyone and Morato looked to have a simple header back to Sels. Gruda put the Brazilian under pressure and the header was short so the Brighton man latched onto it. His touch was poor and Forest should have cleared the danger but Morato back heeled the ball into the path of the on running Tzimas to roll into an empty net. The Reds have now conceded 9 goals in the closing 15 minutes of games; a stat they need to change around if they want to put a gap between themselves and the relegation zone.

I think a lot of Sunday’s result might be due to playing Thursday. For the players that played they only had 2 days to recover but even for the ones that didn’t they wouldn’t have been too involved in the training so they might’ve slightly switched off and then had to quickly switch back on. The first half we lacked energy and intensity and conceding the goal just before half time really set us back. The half-time substitutes really impacted the second half and it’s hard to see how we didn’t score. Having Wood might’ve given you someone to aim for in the box but I thought Jesus was one of the only players in the first half that deserved plaudits. Williams has been so good for us but even he was poor. Let’s hope this was just a blip and we can continue that good run of form we were on before.

Forest: Sels; Savona, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams; Ndoye (Hutchinson 46’), Sangare (Yates 74’), Anderson, Dominguez (Hudson-Odoi 46’); Gibbs-White (McAtee 85’), Igor Jesus (Kalimuendo 75’)

Brighton and Hove Albion: Verbruggen; Wieffer, Van Hecke, Dunk, Kadioglu; Ayari, Gomez (Baleba 84’); Minteh (Gruda 84’), Rutter (Hinshelwood 56’), De Cuyper (Veltman 84’); Welbeck (Tzimas 65’)