Key events
90+3 min: A collision between Evans and Gibbs-White leads the Forest player to hit the ground. Sir Dave and Sir Alex don’t look too amused in the stand.
90+2 min: Garnacho overcooks a ball played to Reguillon as Ten Hag tells his players to calm down. The weather has taken a turn for the worse.
90 min: United sub: Reguillon on for Wan-Bissaka. There will be 10 minutes added on. From who knows when?
89 min: United are awarded a corner. It should have been Forest’s ball. Eriksen wafts it straight to the grateful, relieved Turner.
88 min: Mangala booked for a tactical foul almost immediately.
87 min: Forest subs: Aina, Danilo and Elanga off. Boly, Toffolo and Mangala on.
86 min: A delay as Stockley Park gets confused over who should be booked. Garnacho is booked, McTominay’s is rescinded. Or something. It’s not clear.
84 min: Huge cheers as Turner sits on the ball after United try and find their way back again. Forest, with a former United winger in Elanga, are far more dangerous on the counter.
Goal! Nottingham Forest 2-1 Manchester United (Gibbs-White, 82)
Garnacho, from distance, forces a save from Turner…well done, it was a fine save. Forest get the ball clear, and go all the way back, and Gibbs-White comes on to Elanga’s ball and smashes past Onana. Turner’s redemption came quickly.
80 min: Huge credit to Garnacho, too. He’s a canny lads, knows all the tricks, knows a dodgy keeper when he sees it. Matt Turner may live to regret that his manager is an ex-goalie.
79 min: If ever the phrase “get it launched” was appropriate then Matt Turner’s folly wa it. Meanwhile, a Forest sub: Dominguez, the scorer, off, and Hudson-Odoi on.
Goal! Nottingham Forest 1-1 Manchester United (Rashford, 78)
Oh, Matt Turner! He next tries to kick clear. Straight to Garnacho, over to Rashford, first time, and goal. Oh Matt Turner, that was a gift.
76 min: Matt Turner almost kicks the ball back into his own net by kicking with an impossible spin, the type Tiger Woods might use on the greens of Augusta from the fringe. He is protected by his defenders as he jumps to claim.
75 min: Williams’ first act is to be pushed over by an over-eager Garnacho.
74 min: Forest change: the excellent Montiel for Neco Williams, full-back for full-back.
72 min: United have ball-players in Eriksen and Fernandes. They haven’t seen much of the ball; Fernandes plays a nice pass out left, and Dalot tries to find Eriksen. They’re still awful, anyway. In every department.
70 min: Final call for debut albums, with Randy Gatley in Canada’s diverse selection: “Still taking debut album submissions? How about Crazy Rhythms by the Feelies, Extractions by Dif Juz, Paid in Full by Eric B & Rakim, and to keep things vaguely on topic, the first Tindersticks and the first Stone Roses.”
Dif Juz?
69 min: United seem to have woken up. Forest looking to sit back and counter?
67 min: Chance for Garnacho from a corner. He takes to the air…and….maybe he will only ever score one acrobatic volley but at least he can say he’s done it. Or will it be like Roberto Carlos and free-kicks? Always attempting the same thing, and never recreating it.
66 min: William in Germany nominates Elvis Costello’s My Aim Is True: “Yes, the phenomenal Elvis Costello debut album. It’s such a good debut album that it seems too mature to even *be* a debut album.”
The backing band is not the Attractions but the band who became Huey Lewis & The News.
65 min: Much credit must go to Danilo for his part in that goal. No credit need to be offered to United’s dreadful defending.
Goal! Nottingham Forest 1-0 Manchester United (Dominguez, 64)
It had been coming. The ball goes into the area, Varane and Evans fail to read it and Dominguez just has to pass the ball into the net. A deserved Forest goal.
61 min: Marcus Rashford is down, and looks in pain. He looks to jar his knee, and has his hands over his eyes. He’s at least sat up. And gets up, only to leave the field very slowly.
60 min: Forest are again over-elaborate on the set piece. Get it launched, lads!
59 min: Another booking as Varane legs up Elanga. The Frenchman was having to make up for his own mistake there.
57 min: Aggro aggro. Gibbs-White smashes into McTominay and Evans. He’s booked. Correctly so. He got a bit excited. Dalot is booked for dissent. A VAR red card inquiry lets off the Forest man to loud applause.
55 min: Hello! Dalot gets the ball 30 yards out after a slick United passing move – Diallo involved – and it smashes back out off the post. Antony, by the way, looked to have an injury.
54 min: Another United change: Amad Diallo comes on for Antony.
Reminder: Diallo cost United a deal around 40m euros. He has talent but…is yet to show it.
53 min: All Forest, and Wan-Bissaka lucky not to concede a penalty as he slides in. United get some respite as Garnacho escapes before Niakite comes across.
51 min: McTominay comes back to clear up danger. Forest are the better team here, and by some way. United are just…United, the bad United. The ball is hacked clear by Eriksen as Forest build up a head of steam.
50 min: Forest fans call for a penalty as Evans steps across and Gibbs-White comes across him. No, never. Though can you say never with penalties these days?
48 min: Marcus Rashford is having one. Having received the ball with his back to goal he swings a heel at it. Aimless, useless, what was the point?
47 min: Richard Hirst: “Good to know there are so many aged (prog) rockers in the world. I give you Cheap Thrills by Big Brother and the Holding Company ft J Joplin.”
Paul Griffin: “Dre’s, er, pharmacologically extravagant The Chronic, John Grant’s sumptuously maudlin Queen of Denmark, Jonsi from Sigur Ros’s astonishing Go. BTW whatever happened to thingy Knowles out of Destiny’s Child? Trying to remember has got me feeling crazy right now.”
Francis Mead: “Debut albums: The Doors. Led Zeppelin. Crosby, Stills and Nash, Jimi Hendrix. Not very original, but hard to deny.”
Robert Tyler: “Best debut albums you say? The Cars. Still a repeat listen (I don’t like to recall how many) years after I first bought it. Definitely better than this match. Even better than the burger and tasty beer that’s helping me watch this match.
46 min: As I am swamped by talk of debut albums, we have a football game on, and Manchester United have made a change. Scott McTominay is on for Kobbie Mainoo.
Jeff K gets in touch: “The Velvet Underground and Nico has to be up there as one of the great debut albums, and ahead of Patti Smith’s Horses. What do you think?”
Yes, agree, though I actually prefer Doug Yule-era Velvets to Cale-era. America’s greatest ever band, whatever.
Charles Antaki gets in touch: “I bow to Kári Tulinius for the nomination of Björk and Lauren Hill. But George Harrison? Agreed, we learnt something about him, but I’m not sure that it was much to his credit. Wonderful musicianship and all, and he was due some recognition, but I for one just can’t bear his whiny, adenoidal vocals, and I suspect that anyone who was unwary enough to buy All Things Must Pass will have found that three quarters of it was fairly dismal going. There. I’ve got that off my chest after 30 years.”
I tend to agree on that album, though love the first side. Apple Jam? Nah, you’re alright.
Jeremy Boyce gets in touch: “Which of them would be more likely to win them the match ? Lord Ferg of teacups, or Sir Dave of marginal gains ? As it goes, not much sign of the marginal gains recently, some scatter-gun transfer policy on the bike front and no trophies to show for a lot of dosh spent, sounds familiar?”
Joe Pearson gets in touch: “How interesting that Kári Tulinius mentions debut albums. In a bit of MBM Synchronicity, I am currently listening to Deep Track’s countdown of Top Fifty debut albums. We’re in the 30s right now, and some of the choices so far have been odd. I mean, I like Rush, but their debut was meh at best. If you want an all-time debut album, may I point you to ‘In the Court of the Crimson King’? You’re welcome!”
Good choice, though I prefer Larks Tongues in Aspic and Red. Great debut albums? Wire – Pink Flag, Television – Marquee Moon, Suede – Suede, Patti Smith – Horses.
Half-time: Nottingham Forest 0-0 Manchester United
Cold turkey, constipated, and whatever such metaphors. Nuno will be the happier of the managers; his team have looked organised. Erik Ten Hag’s United have followed the same pattern of much of their away form this year: disjointed, clueless, waiting for something to happen without doing anything to inspire it.
45 min: Onana takes the ball out of his area and blams it into Chris Wood’s chops. There’s only a minute added. United’s wingers have changed wing. Bit late in this half?
44 min: Forest keep forcing corners. Will they get in in the mixer? This time Gibbs-White does just that, after a shoving session is called to a halt. Onana looks panicky but then punches well clear. Credit to him for that.
42 min: Forest free-kick, taken short, and lofted to Murillo, who lets the ball go out. Frankly dreadful football but of a piece with what’s been a post Christmas stinker. Like the first bin day after new year.
40 min: Antony looks pained by his lack of involvement. In truth, all of United’s forwards have been Nuno-ed. He always was a decent organiser of a defence.
37 min: Rashford appears, at last, and tries to release the similarly anonymous Antony. Zero timed by zero: turns out it equals zero.
35 min: Marcus Rashford is away….as in, he’s done the square root of nothing and United could do with someone filling in for him.
33 min: Clash between Danilo and Mainoo, and the United youngster took a sore one in trying to win the ball.
32 min: Elanga finds space in United’s box, and sets up Danilo, and the shot is lofted high. That was a good position wasted.
29 min: Montiel, a player of pedigree, is doing a number on Argentine compatriot Alejandro Garnacho. Perhaps it may come time to switch wings.
28 min: Up in the stands, Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Dave Brailsford are sat together.
27 min: Jonny Evans forced to clear up a mess made by Onana’s poor play with his feet. From the corner, the ball falls to Danilo, but the venomous strike comes off Wan-Bissaka’s rippling thighs.
