Aston Villa 3-1 Nottingham Forest: Villa Win 3rd in a Row

The playoff chase is very real.

The great mini-run of form continued for Aston Villa as they triumphed in their second consecutive away match, dispatching a very capable team, at what has proven this season to be a rather difficult venue to play.

As with the first meeting that ended 5-5, this match was full of attacking football, and was played pretty wide open from the onset.

Lineups & First-Half

As was predicted accurately, Dean Smith made two changes to the starting XI that faced Blues on the weekend. John McGinn entered back into his midfield role which sent Glenn Whelan to the bench. André Green got the start over Albert Adomah, having impressed in his time on the pitch against Birmingham City. Our man Jack donned the captain’s armband once again.

Nottingham Forest was playing without former Villa man and their top goalscorer Lewis Grabban, but still fielded a lineup full of players with plenty of experience:

The match started off with a bang, seeing Forest captain Jack Colback find space on the left-wing to loop in a cross that found the top corner at the far post. Jed Steer was positioned closer to the near post, and was unable to recover in time to prevent the ball from finding the back of the net. I imagine that many Villa supporters, including myself, had to be heard saying: “Here we go again.”

Then, there we went again.

A flurry of attacks followed for Aston Villa, seeing John McGinn net not once, but twice in the 10ish minutes that followed the opening goal. Anwar El-Ghazi headed home another goal just minutes after McGinn’s second, but was deemed offside. The game remained both feisty and open after this, seeing a number of chances fall to both sides (more to Villa), and 2 first half yellow cards brandished by  the card-master Mike Dean.

Second-Half

The second half began with yet another disallowed goal (This time for Nottingham Forest), after Forest defender Yohan Benalouane was deemed to have created space by pushing Kortney Hause. Aston Villa remained hungry, and eventually found their third goal through the aforementioned Hause following a set piece. Hause’s first goal in a Villa uniform seemed to deflate the Nottingham Forest men, who did not seem the same after that point. Aston Villa rather comfortably saw the game out after that, utilizing Albert Adomah, Jonathan Kodjia, and Glenn Whelan as substitutes.

The win sees Villa leap-frog Forest up into 8th place, just 2 points back of 6th place Derby County. The playoff chase is absolutely on, and Aston Villa can make another huge stride if they are able to secure three points against Middlesbrough this Saturday. UTV