Gibbs-White stars as Forest add to Manchester United woes
Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White celebrates with teammates.
Morgan Gibbs-White added to Erik ten Hag’s mounting problems with an 82nd minute winner at the City Ground that inflicted a 14th defeat of the season on Manchester United.
Their worst run in 93 years continued as Matt Turner, badly at fault for United’s equaliser, made a superb save from Christian Eriksens’s shot and Forest broke upfield.
Ryan Yates carried the ball half the length of the field before Anthony Elanga found an unmarked Gibbs-White on the edge of the United area.
His superb finish gave Andre Onana no chance in the visitors’ goal and capped an entertaining second half.
Forest took control of the game on 63 minutes with a move started by former United winger Elanga as he attacked down the right and found Gonzalo Montiel.
A neat lay-off found the unmarked Nicolas Dominguez who swept the ball in from 16 yards.
It left United, and ten Hag, under severe pressure but Forest contributed to their own downfall with keeper Turner gifting them a 77th minute equaliser.
Not for the first time, the American made an appalling pass out of defence, this one being intercepted by Alejandro Garnacho who darted into the area and found Rashford with a selfless pass.
The United striker showed great composure to place an unstoppable shot into the bottom corner.
The first half was not one of many chances, with United’s sole shot coming on 32 minutes when Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s hopeful hit struck a defender and was easily gathered as it trickled to Matt Turner.
It was a far cry from the second half on Boxing Day when United had scored three times, and had another ruled out, in fighting back to beat Aston Villa.
And ten Hag’s problems increased on game day when Rasmus Hojlund was forced out through illness, pressing Rashford into service as a number nine.
Forest, under new manager Nuno Espírito Santo, were more ambitious but did not produce much more in terms of threat on goal. Indeed, United defender Raphael Varane offered the biggest threat to the visitors’ goal when he deflected an Elanga cross along the goal line.
Ten Hag brought on Scott McTominay, still United’s leading league scorer with five, at the interval as he sought more attacking punch.
And the United manager responded further after less than 10 minutes, by throwing on Amad Diallo, for his first appearance for the club in a little over two years, and ten Hag almost saw an instant response.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s 55th minute cross found Diogo Dalot on the edge of the Forest area and his tremendous strike hit the foot of the post.
Tempers were raised by an incident following a Gibbs-White foul on McTominay, with the Forest man and Dalot both booked before Varane was also shown yellow for a trip.
In 10 minutes of added time, United finally rallied and Turner was forced to make an amazing reflex save to tip over a deflected volley from Bruno Fernandes.
Turner 5; Montiel 7 (Williams 74, 6), Niakhate 7, Murillo 6, Aina 7 (Toffolo 87); Danilo 7 (Mangala 87), Yates 7; Elanga 8 (Boly 87), Gibbs-White 9, Dominguez 7 (Hudson-Odoi 79); Wood 6.
Tavares, Worrall, Kouyate, Vlachodimos.
Onana 6; Wan-Bissaka 5 (Reguilon 90), Varane 5, Evans 7, Dalot 6; Mainoo 6 (McTominay 45, 6), Eriksen 6; Antony 4 (Diallo 54, 6), Fernandes 8, Garnacho 7; Rashford 7.
Bayindir, Pellistri, van de Beek, Gore, Mejbri, Kambwala.
T Robinson 7.
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