Nottingham Forest are out of the Europa League after a 4-0 defeat to Aston Villa at Villa Park.
The home side were better all over the park for 90 minutes and had this been a boxing contest, Vitor Pereira might have thrown in the towel.
Indeed, some Forest players on the night did. The eleven had a very disjointed feel to it as Murillo, Morgan Gibbs-White and Ibrahim Sangare were only fit enough for the bench.
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Gibbs-White and Sangare didn’t get on and had to watch on as Ollie Watkins, Emi Buendia and a brace from John McGinn sealed Forest’s fate.
Ally McCoist has advice for Vitor Pereira
This was a sobering night for Pereira as he watched a Forest second string pretty much throw the game at Villa.
Several star players were missing and although he was named on the bench, Gibbs-White didn’t get involved in the action.
McCoist had some advice for Pereira after this game and believes Forest can dust themselves down for the remainder of the campaign.
He said on TNT Sports: “He’s still done fantastically well; they’ve had a bad night at the office for sure, but they just need to go and make sure now that they’re playing Premier League football next season.”
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The home side ran riot in the second half.
Forest face Newcastle on Sunday in a game where they know that three points can guarantee Premier League safety for another season.
With games against Manchester United and Bournemouth to come in the final weeks of the season, it’s now important that Forest get things finalised and ensure survival for another season at this level.
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