A mixed bag of pre-season results, coupled with the high-profile departure of Anthony Elanga, had Forest fans pondering what this PL season may look like.
The opening stages of this game suggested they needn’t have worried, as a lightning-quick start yielded the opening goal when Brentford failed to clear a Forest corner, and the effervescent Chris Wood was on hand to steer home the loose ball.
The Bees were under immense pressure in the opening 20 minutes, but having weathered the storm on Andrews’ managerial debut, they came close to finding a leveller when Yehor Yarmolyuk’s outside-of-the-foot effort from the edge of the area forced a strong one-handed save out of Matz Sels.
Forest have long since taken an exception to VAR in the PL, and they were smarting from what they felt was another incorrect call just after the half-hour mark. Elliot Anderson’s free-kick travelled a long way before striking the outstretched arm of Antoni Milambo, but neither referee Peter Bankes nor VAR saw anything doing.
The Tricky Trees were able to garner that sense of injustice and turn it into a positive, doubling their advantage before half-time through Dan Ndoye, who headed home Morgan Gibbs-White’s cross on his Forest debut.
There was still time for Nuno Espirito Santo’s men to add a third before Peter Bankes sounded the half-time whistle. Anderson was the architect, threading a perfect ball through for Wood, who rounded Caoimhin Kelleher and rolled into an empty net.
The second half followed a much similar pattern, with Forest dominating for large parts.
They came within a whisker of a fourth goal soon after the break, and in some style too, as Gibbs-White acrobatically volleyed over the bar from a little over six yards out.
The Bees were handed a lifeline just under 15 minutes from time when Ibrahim Sangare was adjudged to have handled inside the area, and after a lengthy delay, Igor Thiago stepped forward from 12 yards and rolled home his first goal for the club.
That proved to be nothing more than a consolation strike for Andrews’ men, who slumped to a first-ever defeat on the opening day of a PL season.
The day belonged to Forest, who won their opening game of a league campaign for the first time since 2017 as they ramp up their preparations for their upcoming UEFA Europa League campaign.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest)
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