Watford’s Odion Ighalo strikes late to end Nottingham Forest Cup dream
Nottm Forest 0 - 1 WatfordAway team scorers
Odion Jude Ighalo 89
Odion Ighalo came off the bench to score his 15th goal of the season for Watford and knock Nottingham Forest out of the FA Cup.
If it came as no surprise that the match was won for Watford by Odion Ighalo – the Nigerian striker scoring with two minutes remaining after coming on as a late substitute – nor did it come as a shock that the goal came as the result of a mistake.
The Nottingham Forest defender Kelvin Wilson was the unfortunate party, hopelessly miskicking an attempted clearance of Allan Nyom’s cross, enabling Ighalo to drive in his 15th goal of the season, but it was that sort of match: high on effort, but miserably low on quality – and indeed incident – until the final frantic few minutes.
Having promised before the match to rotate, Quique Sánchez Flores, the Watford manager, was as good as his word. The defenders Craig Cathcart and Nathan Ake, midfielder Ben Watson and striker Troy Deeney were the only players named in his starting line-up who also started in the league victory over Newcastle last time out, though with the prolific Ighalo among the substitutes, the bench was a strong one.
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With rather less room to manoeuvre, Dougie Freedman, the Nottingham Forest manager who completes a year in charge on Monday, rested only Matt Mills, Michael Mancienne and Nelson Oliviera of the regular starters. Remarkably, his 12 months at the helm mean Freedman is now the second longest serving of the seven managers appointed by Fawaz Al Hawasi since he bought the club in the summer of 2012.
Under Freedman, Forest have certainly become harder to beat and came into the match having conceded only once in their last five games. The fact that seven of their last ten league matches had been drawn, however, was an indication they have been rather less effective going forward, though great things are expected of their young forward Oliver Burke.
The 18-year-old , starting wide on the right in Freedman’s preferred 4-1-4-1 formation, did whip in a lovely early cross, and soon afterwards turned his full-back, Ake, before being wrestled off the ball. With only Nathan Blackstock up front, though, Forest offered little threat in the box. Gary Gardner’s shot from 30 yards, which rose well over the bar, was their only attempt on goal in the opening 20 minutes.
Watford, by contrast, were as neat, positive and purposeful as has come to be expected, though it quickly became clear how much they rely on the runs and pace of Ighalo. Nordin Amrabat, the recent £6m signing from Malaga, struggled to find space, not that he gave the impression of working very hard to find it.
As the half went on, though, Watford’s share of possession did see them test the Forest goalkeeper Dorus De Vries. Adlene Guedioura warmed his hands with a volley from 22 yards, and soon afterwards he got down well to block Ake’s low angled drive, but remarkably, it was Forest who should have gone in ahead. Jamie Ward seized on a misunderstanding between Allan Nyom and Sebastian Prödl to run clear but, with only Costel Pantilimon to beat, the Forest winger clipped the ball wide.
Amrabat, anonymous in the first half, nearly made an impact ten minutes into the second. The Moroccan’s volley, hit with the outside of his right foot, was curving towards the top corner when De Vries pulled off an outstanding save.
While the game acquired more urgency, however, the quality remained low, and chances few and far between. Flores replaced Deeney with Ighalo, and, with neither club keen on a replay, Freedman switched to a 4-3-3, in possession at least. The crowd responded, and Forest began to get the ball into the box from time to time, but Ighalo had the final word.
Guardian
