Roy Keane has ‘criticism’ for £5.9m Nottingham Forest ace despite win over Exeter City

Add as preferred source on Google

Nottingham Forest edged past a dogged Exeter City side in the FA Cup with the Reds winning 4-2 on penalties after an entertaining 2-2 draw at St James’ Park.

Taiwo Awoniyi broke his nose during the contest. However, he bagged his second goal of the season and he was one of the team’s brightest sparks on the night.

This was all about the League One outfit really, however. Gary Caldwell’s team can count themselves very unlucky not to progress with striker Josh Magennis particularly impressive.

Forest came though in style during the shootout. The Reds scored all four of the penalties taken with a quad of substitutes despatching their kicks from 12 yards.

Roy Keane felt that Forest coped better with penalties. It was the one aspect of the night that didn’t actually prove dramatic from a Forest perspective and the spot-kicks were well-taken.

• READ MORE: Major change takes place behind the scenes at Forest

Roy Keane slams Nottingham Forest player Jota Silva

After scoring his maiden Premier League goal against Brighton, this felt like a big chance for Silva. He’s played second fiddle all season and he’d have relished the chance to start a game against lower league opposition.

However, Forest fans were frustrated with Silva. He didn’t produce a good performance and in the last seconds of the game, he should have won the game for Forest but smashed his effort against the upright when it seemed easier to score.

On that incident, Keane told ITV Sport: “That’s a big miss, it’s a criticism I’m afraid, you’ve got to hit the target, make the keeper save it, you can’t hit the post there.”

Silva spent the duration of the match on the pitch and that proved surprising. Anthony Elanga was on the bench but Nuno Espirito Santo chose to preserve him for Saturday instead.

Jota Silva stats vs Exeter

The more the game wore on, the more Silva appeared frustrated. He was getting very little from the referee and subsequently gave away a number of silly free kicks during the game.

Silva has to get better if he’s to become a first-team regular at Forest. He’s nowhere near the level of Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi at the moment and just doesn’t seem to be adapting.

The player is decent as an impact substitute. However, on this showing, he has very little chance of starting the next game at Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday.

Silva is definitely a trier. However, last night he was largely frustrating and his effort that ricocheted off the post late in the day pretty much summed up his performance on the whole.