Nottingham Forest were beaten 4-3 by Newcastle at St James’ Park as the Reds put up a spirited second-half display after being completely blown away in the first 45 minutes.
Alexander Isak scored twice for the Magpies after Lewis Miley and Jacob Murphy had cancelled out an opening goal scored by Callum Hudson-Odoi inside the opening six minutes.
Newcastle didn’t have to get out of first gear to score four times in 11 minutes and that made for an interesting half-time team-talk by Nuno Espirito Santo who sent his team out with his words ringing in their ears.
Whatever he said made an impact. There was only one team who looked likely in the second 45 minutes and with 27 minutes left, Nikola Milenkovic swept the ball home to get Forest started on the comeback.
With just minutes left to play, Forest scored another when Ryan Yates poked the ball home to give the Reds a genuine chance that something could be obtained from the contest.
Inexplicable, however, just three minutes went onto the fourth official’s board and Forest were left to rue the first-half display and settle for nothing more than a spirited second 45 minutes.
Forest fans fuming with performance of Ola Aina vs Newcastle
The display that Ola Aina put in during the first 45 minutes was nothing short of shambolic. Although he has credit in the bank this wasn’t the performance of a player who Forest fans have claimed to be the best full-back in the league this season.
Another fan wrote after the first half performance of Aina: “Aina having a nightmare.”
Another furious fan thought it was nothing to do with being tired and said: “Aina has just been straight-up lazy.”
Forest fans need clarity on Aina contract situation
This whole debacle is a bit messy. Forest went and gave new deals to Chris Wood and Murillo in January but left Aina out in the cold and maybe there is a suggestion that it’s having a mental impact on the player.
If Aina has chosen to move on or Forest have decided to look for another option, things need to be out in the open as the lack of transparency is doing nothing for anybody.
Aina has been largely brilliant this season. He has lots of credit in the bank but literally all four of Newcastle’s goals came from his side of the pitch and there needs to be some accountability.
The 28-year-old will hope to be better against Arsenal on Wednesday night. Forest are surely going to continue picking him for now but he will be under no illusion that this level of performance just isn’t acceptable.
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