Forest v Newcastle - Match Thread

After the poor performance of Saturday evening, the game against Newcastle cannot come fast enough. Maybe AK decided that the way to beat Newcastle is to lull them into a false sense of security? Forest were so awful that even Benitez decides to pull on a shirt.

Newcastle then have so far had an expected start to the season…LDL...losing to Spurs, drawing against dogged Cardiff and losing to Chelsea. GF2 GA4. Following their most difficult test of the season against Forest, they have City (A) before the International break.

Forest are so far DDWDDD GF8 GA7 with Brentford (A) to follow.

You could argue that we’ll both lose our Away games…and as such, we will both go all out. However, this is 2018, so expect Newcastle to put out the second, third and fourth string. Forest put out some of the second string (on Saturday) due to injuries and our clever ruse to baffle Benitez. As such, I think we’ll line up like this:

Steele
Byram Dawson Hefele Robinson
Cash Yates Osborn Lolley
Carvalho
Brereton

Erllandsson, Worrall, Darikwa, Bridcutt, Goncalves, Soudani, Gomis

Steele – Pants will surely make way. Smith is suspended
Byram – to get more match time
Dawson – to try and oust Figs (who was awful)
Hefele - to get more match time
Robinson - to get more match time (although he looked knackered)
Cash – our best player until the substitutions (maybe Goncalves to start)
Yates – time to see what he can do (as Watson was absolutely woeful)
Osborn – for his energy
Lolley – because he came on and was our best player
Carvalho – as the Soudani experiment didn’t really work
Brereton – because we’re mental to sell him. Plus, Grabban is injured. Plus, Murphy was awful (except for his goal)

Again, another makeshift side, but one that at least going forwards ensures that we have the quality to create and convert chances. Anything could happen in this one. My prediction 2-2 and penalties.