Nottingham Forest progressed in the FA Cup after beating Ipswich Town on penalties as the team set up a quarter-final clash against Brighton at the end of the month.
Forest fell behind courtesy of a goal by George Hirst who headed home following some comical defending from a set-piece once again in the absence of Nikola Milenkovic.
Ryan Yates did restore parity and then proceeded to have a goal disallowed after straying frantically offside but it wasn’t to be for the Reds.
Forest beat their Premier League counterparts to go one step further this season than they did during the 2023/24 campaign after losing to Manchester United in the last 16 last time out.
There were a number of poor performances from the men wearing the Garibaldi. The City Ground fans who turned up tried their best to rally the players but ultimately it proved another drab performance to go with many others in recent weeks.
Fans react to frustrating Taiwo Awoniyi performance
It’s been a season of relative struggle for Awoniyi. In fairness, he’s not been considered the first choice since Nuno Espirito Santo came to the club and that has made life a struggle.
He got into some good areas against Ipswich tonight but ultimately, he didn’t get the ball and Who Scored showed that he touched the ball just five times during the opening 45 minutes.
Some fans are genuinely worried now that Awoniyi isn’t the player that he used to be and fear that his days at the City Ground might well be numbered.
Some fans bemoaned his knack of not being able to find any real space. One said: “Taiwo Awoniyi, bless him. He couldn’t find space in the Sahara.”
Taiwo Awoniyi stats vs Ipswich
Ultimately, this was more minutes in the tank for Awoniyi. That could prove to be important in the future as the season draws to a close and European football is in the sights of Forest.
It will be tough for Forest to obtain that if anything should happen to Wood with Awoniyi failing to find the net during a Premier League game during the 2024/25 campaign.
| Taiwo Awoniyi stats vs Ipswich | Total |
| Minutes | 81 |
| Touches | 9 |
| Pass Accuracy | 66.7% |
| Shots | 0 |
| Who Scored Rating | 6.37 |
However, Awoniyi should be cut some slack from the supporters. After all, were it not for the Nigerian, Forest would likely have been relegated after a single season back in the Premier League.
Still, his performance tonight won’t have won him many more admirers even if for large parts he was starved of any real service from his teammates.
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