Premier League football returned to St. Mary’s and with it came a rather forgettable first half which produced little of incident. Southampton threatened to become the architects of their own downfall, with their insistence on overplaying allowing Forest to play on the front foot.
The visitors looked increasingly threatening from a series of set-plays and Nikola Milenkovic squandered the opportunity to mark his Forest debut in style, prodding Chris Wood’s knockdown wide, with the goal at his mercy, as the two sides continued to cancel each other until the break.
The Saints had posed little attacking threat in the first half but began the second period with an increased sense of attacking intensity, although Matz Sels in the Forest goal remained largely a bystander against the toothless hosts.
Anthony Elanga’s mazy dribble upfield was met with a well-timed challenge on the edge of the box from Jan Bednarek as Forest regained the ascendancy heading into the final 20 minutes.
And Southampton were forced to pay the price for their inability to clear their lines following a Forest corner when the ball was hoisted back to Gibbs-White at the back post, who reacted sharpest to a rebound after his initial header was scrambled off the line by Yukinari Sugawara.
Southampton produced a late surge of pressure inside the final five minutes, aided by the introduction of quick-footed youngster Tyler Dibling, but Sels would remain untested to earn his first clean sheet of the campaign and leave Russel Martin’s men frustrated for a successive weekend upon their PL return.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest)
