Newcastle 2 -0 Nottingham Forest Guimaraes (58) Woltemade (83) Bruno Guimaraes steals the show as Newcastle heap the pressure on Ange Postecoglou with a 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest Eddie Howe placed his trust in an unchanged 11 from Wednesday nights 4-0 hammering of Union St.Gilloise in the Champions League. Whilst Ange Postecoglou still searching for his first win in charge of Nottingham Forest made 4 changes from defeat to FC Midtjylland away in the Europa League. Igor Jesus, Murillo, Ibrahim Sangare and Callum Hudson-Odoi dropping out of the side making way for Chris Wood,Ryan Yates, Jair Cunha and Nicolo Savona. The opening ten minutes passed without incident as both teams looked to settle into the game. Nottingham Forest looked happy to sit back and wait for the counter in a style that isn’t commonly associated with the under fire Postecoglou, Whilst Newcastle looked for quick passages of play in the final third to no avail. Joelinton was the first to test Sels in the Forest goal just after the 10 minute mark as he sent a first time effort goalwards after an excellent delivery was fired into the box by Kieran Trippier. Matz Sels was called into action five minutes later as Nottingham Forest failed to deal with a corner allowing Sven Botman to head the ball across the box which fell to Joelinton who saw his effort saved at close range by the Forest showstopper. Nottingham Forest had their first chance of the game just before the 20th minute, Morgan Gibbs-White sent a tame free-kick straight at Nick Pope in the Newcastle goal. Chris Wood passed up a glorious opportunity minutes later as Gibbs-White bombed down the right hand side firing a low driven cross into the box missed by the Newcastle backline however, the Forest talisman couldn’t sort out his feet in time to get a shot off. The game descended into a stop start affair with a number of fouls committed by both sides culminating in Ryan Yates and Neco Williams finding themselves into the book. Nottingham Forest won their first corner of the game in the 40th minute who looked to be growing in confidence as the clock ticked on after Sandro Tonali took no chances with a Neco Williams delivery. The proceeding corner was clawed away by Pope and the danger cleared by the Newcastle rearguard. A minute before the break Newcastle after a sustained period of pressure had two opportunities to take the lead with Joelinton seeing his effort deflected after a layoff from Woltemade the ball bouncing out to Tonali who fired his effort well wide of the post. Into added on time of the first half Neco Williams already in on a booking could consider himself lucky to remain on the park as his outstretched arm made contact with a Trippier cross and out for a corner which led to nothing as the first half came to a close. 3 minutes after the break Gordon had the first half chance off the half after good play down the right hand side by Trippier the ball was delivered into the box finding it’s way to Gordon who saw his effort deflected as the Forest defence had done for large spells of the game already. 2 minutes later Morato’s blushes were spared after a ball into the box by Anthony Gordon was heavily touched by the Forest defender which fell right to Woltemade who sent an effort goalwards with Morato recovering well to deflect the effort away. Newcastle had a VAR check for a potential penalty as Morato was all over Dan Burn as a corner was delivered by Tonali with the officials deciding there was minimal contact and play resumed. Bruno Guimaraes fired the Magpies into the lead in the 58th minute winning the ball from Gibbs-White in the middle exchanging a quick one-two with Dan Burn before firing a sensational strike from outside the box into the top corner which left Matz Sels with no chance in the Forest goal. VAR checked the goal for a potential foul on Gibbs-White who cleared the goal. Morato finally found himself into the book after a number of fouls in the second half as he brought down Elanga who looked got be racing away towards goal. Tonali sent the free-kick into the box with the ball being headed away. Sandro Tonali was the next to test Sels as his effort was expertly tipped over by the showstopper. The resulting corner delivered by Tonali fell to Woltemade who crashed his close range effort of the bar a follow up effort was deflected away. Hudson-Odoi with the first chance of note for Forest in the second half skinning Trippier before firing an effort straight at Nick Pope. 10 minutes from time Sels yet again with a save to keep his side in it as he kept out a close range effort from Thiaw before seconds later denying Harvey Barnes who was bearing down on goal. Former Magpie Elliot Anderson brought down Bruno Guimaraes in the box as Newcastle were awarded a penalty with 7 minutes remaining. Nick Woltemade in front of the Gallowgate fired the ball right into the top corner leaving Matz Sels rooted as he scored for the 3rd consecutive game. With 6 minutes added on at the end the game petered out as Newcastle saw out their professional performance with Forest failing to trouble them at all. Newcastle: Pope 6 Trippier 7 Thiaw 6 Botman 6 Burn 6 Guimaraes 8 Tonali 7 Joelinton 7 Elanga 6 Woltemade 7 Gordon 6 Substitutes: Barnes 5 Murphy 5 Miley 2 Osula 2 Nottingham Forest: Sels 7 Milenkovic 6 Cunha 6 Morato 5 Savona 5 Anderson 5 Yates 5 Williams 5 Ndoye 5 Wood 4 Gibbs-White 6 Substitutes: Hudson-Odoi 5 Hutchinson 5 Jesus 5 Bakwa 4
