Nottingham Forest 3 Bolton Wanderers 2: Player Ratings

Wanderers’ winless away run in the Championship was extended to 36 matches with a loss at the City Ground. Bolton had got themselves level just before half-time after gifting Forest an early goal and for a time looked the side most likely to win the game. However, in football, if you don’t take your chances you get punished and Forest ran out 3-2 winners, scoring 3 goals from only 4 shots on target.

Here’s how Wanderers fared:

Ben Alnwick 6

Not his best showing by any means and a far cry from his stellar performance against Barnsley. He didn’t look comfortable all game and could have done better with the third goal. Hopefully this is just an off-day.

Mark Little 6

Another player whose showing was nowhere near the standard set the previous week. He let McKay get away from him too easily too often and was timid in attack. He has got great ability but decided not to show it today.

Reece Burke 7

He was given the nod unexpectedly over David Wheater and I think he did well. Burke was very composed on the ball and won every header he had to. I’m not sure I want him over Wheats every week but he let nobody down.

Mark Beevers 6.5

I thought he did OK and was certainly better in this game than against Barnsley but he just doesn’t look as composed as Burke when they play together. He will always win headers but on the deck he had the fans worried at times.

Antonee Robinson 7

Tyler Walker got the better of him for the first goal and Robinson found him very difficult to deal with but Des’ son hardly got a sniff in the second period. He will have many days like this where pacy wingers test him but on today’s showing I back him to pass most times

Karl Henry 6

It wasn’t his best performance and his set-piece delivery was very poor. However, he did his job pretty well and you can’t criticise him too much when he has made the difference he has to this team.

Darren Pratley 7

I thought he was markedly better than Henry and kept the very talented Ben Osborn quiet. Henry’s biggest achievement has been the change he has brought out of the Skipper and long may it continue.

Sammy Ameobi 7.5

This was the big man back to his best. He tracked back well, never letting Eric Lichaj out of his sight and absolutely dominated him physically. Going forward Ameobi looked dangerous and played key roles in all of our good moments. More of the same is needed against Burton.

Josh Vela 6.5

When he got on the ball he looked good but he played the role of Mark Davies too often by going missing for long periods. The cross for Buckley’s goal was superb but his miss was unacceptable and cost us the game.

Will Buckley 7

He made a very slow start but he scored a very good header and after that was on fire. He beat Mancienne with regularity and always looked to go forward. I’m impressed with him.

Gary Madine 6

He went down for no reason the same number of times as his rating which is a bit excessive. It would have been acceptable if he had scored his big chance but he didn’t and, like Vela, cost us valuable points.

Substitutes:

Adam Armstrong 6

Did nothing of note well, did nothing of note badly.

Craig Noone 5

Lost the ball every time he got it, unusually poor.

Aaron Wilbraham 6

Not horrendous, would you believe it! Forced the own-goal in stoppage time and made a nuisance of himself. Not bad, old timer.