Karanka feels one-goal victory margin did not flatter Forest

Posted Thursday, September 20, 2018 by PA

Aitor Karanka was pleased to see Nottingham Forest beat bogey side Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 – but said he would have been happier had they made it more comfortable.

Lewis Grabban’s first goal for Forest, following his £6million summer move from Bournemouth, got them on the right path four minutes before half time, then a sublime finish from Joao Carvalho doubled the lead in the 63rd minute.

Forest were in control and should have had more goals and were almost made to regret it as substitute Steven Fletcher pulled one back for the Owls late on.

But it was the home side who managed to emphatically end a run of seven successive defeats against the Owls, although Karanka was still left wanting a little bit more when the Sky Bet Championship contest ended.

Forest manager Karanka said: “I could have been happier, because we could have won this game even easier. We had a lot of chances and I only remember one chance for them, in the first half.

“We played really well. I knew we needed to take a step forward after Saturday and we did that.

“I said after the Swansea game that I was confident about the future, because that game showed that everyone here understood that we needed to take a step forward.

“We controlled the game from the beginning. We had the first chances and the last chances – we controlled the game against a very good team.”

After bagging his first goal for Forest, Karanka believes Grabban, who netted 20 goals last season for Aston Villa and Sunderland, will flourish.

The 45-year-old continued: “I hope he can go on a good run now, because I said always that he would be a really important player for us.

“Even last Saturday, when he did not score a goal, I congratulated him after the game, because he did a good job.

“It was tough for him not to score goals, because strikers live for their goals. But I knew that, with his quality, the goals would arrive.”

Wednesday had won three and drawn one of their previous four Championship games, helping them to progress up the table.

But manager Jos Luhukay admitted they got what they deserved at the City Ground – along with a reminder that they have work to do yet.

He said: “There is always a new moment to learn from. After games you see what is good and what is not good – today it was not good.

“In our previous games we had been better. But today we did not deserve either one point or three.

“It was very disappointing. Nottingham deserved to win. In the first half, both sides were more concerned about controlling the game than attacking.

“The first goal came from a stupid foul and that left us behind at half-time.

“In the second half, we could not get into good positions or situations, because we were poor on the ball, we were losing the ball and we could not get ourselves in the game.

“Steven Fletcher got us the goal, but we did not really have any chances to win the game.”