Nottingham Forest's Frustrating Draw at Ipswich: Chances Wasted

Nottingham Forest left Portman Road with a familiar feeling: chances wasted, points dropped, questions piling up.

They dominated Ipswich, dictated territory, and racked up numbers that usually win games. Seventeen shots. An expected goals tally of 2.31. Wave after wave of pressure. And still, just a 1-1 draw and another night of frustration for Oliver Glasner’s side.

Forest on top, but punished

With the wind at their backs and purpose in their play, Forest started as if they meant to rip through Ipswich early. Jair Cunha stung the palms of Christian Walton inside six minutes, a first warning of what was coming.

The breakthrough arrived on 13 minutes and it was a fine goal. Daniel Munoz bent in a superb cross from the right and Neco Williams, stealing in at the back post, swept a crisp finish past Walton. A deserved lead, and at that stage it felt like the start of a long evening for Ipswich.

Forest kept coming. They pinned Gary O’Neil’s side back, forced errors, and carved out the kind of chances that usually flatten newly promoted teams. Just after the half-hour, they were inches away from a second. Walton got the slightest touch and, with the ball dribbling towards the line, Leif Davis scrambled back to hack clear. It set the tone for his night: Ipswich’s left-back as emergency firefighter.

Then, out of nowhere, Forest blinked.

Nikola Milenkovic, under little pressure, made a mess of a routine pass back to Matz Sels. Julio Enciso pounced, raced onto the loose ball and coolly rolled in the equaliser four minutes before the break. One mistake, one chance, one goal. Against the run of play, Ipswich were level and Forest were left staring at the scoreboard in disbelief.

The flashpoint: Diop stays on

If the first half was about Forest’s control and one costly lapse, the start of the second belonged to the officials.

On 49 minutes, James McAtee burst through and was wiped out by Issa Diop, who looked to have denied a clear scoring chance. Referee Thomas Bramall initially showed a yellow, then headed to the pitchside monitor after a VAR check.

The decision? Free-kick, but no red. Bramall explained to the crowd that because McAtee had knocked the ball to the right of goal, Diop’s challenge did not meet the threshold for a sending-off. The yellow stood.

Forest were incensed. Glasner did not hide his feelings afterwards, calling it “a clear red card” and “the wrong decision.” Former Forest boss Steve Cooper, watching on television duty, felt the foul itself should have been obvious straight away and admitted the red card call would split opinion. Forest, predictably, felt hard done by.

The sense of grievance only added to the away side’s urgency.

Davis on the line, Forest off target

The second half became a test of Ipswich’s resilience. Forest squeezed higher, snapped into challenges, and attacked with increasing desperation.

Dan Ndoye thought he had finally beaten Walton on 64 minutes, only for Davis to appear again on the line, in the right place at the right time, to repel another goal-bound effort. Two clearances from under his own crossbar in one match; Ipswich owed him heavily.

At the other end, Ipswich rarely threatened. They were forced to live off scraps, half-breaks and hopeful counters, while Forest constructed chance after chance and somehow found new ways not to score.

Liam Delap, facing his former club, had the moment he wanted on 74 minutes. Abdoul Ouattara’s miscue dropped perfectly for him in the box, only for the striker to plant his header over the bar. Later, he unleashed a thumping 30-yard drive that skimmed just wide. Close, but not close enough.

Then came another blow. Williams, Forest’s scorer and one of their best performers on the night, went down with what looked a worrying arm injury. He departed, and with him went a measure of Forest’s composure on the right.

Still the chances came. Callum Hudson-Odoi sliced one effort wide late on, the kind of opening he usually buries. Ipswich substitute Jack Clarke then had a sight of glory at the other end in stoppage time, but dragged his shot off target. Forest had dominated, yet could easily have lost it at the death.

A brutal numbers story

Strip away the emotion and the numbers tell a brutal story. No team in the Premier League has underperformed their expected goals more than Forest this season. Six goals from 13.4 xG. One win from eight games. Performances that often look solid, even impressive, yet a league table that refuses to budge.

Morgan Gibbs-White admitted the players are baffled. He spoke of shooting drills in training, of finishing that looks “top” the day before games, of a group that feels the wins “are going to have to come” if they keep playing like this. Glasner echoed that optimism, praising the “dominant” second-half display, the spirit, the reaction to the setback, and insisting that patience will eventually be rewarded.

Right now, though, the cold reality is points, not performances.

Ipswich’s hard-earned point

For Ipswich, this was a different kind of statement. O’Neil has already spoken about bridging the gap as a newly promoted side, and this was exactly that: a night where his team were second-best in most metrics but refused to fold.

They now have as many points at Portman Road this season as they managed at home in the entire 2024/25 campaign. Seven. A small number on paper, a significant psychological marker in the stands.

O’Neil was quick to stress that survival will not be straightforward, even after a strong start. He called Forest “a top side with top players” and pointed to the money spent and the quality of coaching. His message was clear: if this is what a team near the bottom looks like, nobody should be under any illusions about the grind ahead.

Forest, meanwhile, leave Suffolk with more questions than answers. The patterns are there, the chances are there, the belief – publicly at least – is still there.

But how long can a team keep saying “the goals will come” before the season decides otherwise?