Nottingham Forest 2-3 Fulham: Visitors produce stunning turnaround with three goals in six minutes

The brutal reality has now struck for Nottingham Forest. Despite having spent all that money over the summer, they seem far from being a competitive Premier League outfit.

Achievements such as Manchester City’s six-goal thrashing and the home loss to Tottenham are all part of the elite learning curve.

But if you throw away leads to lose to Bournemouth, as they did two weeks ago, and here against Fulham, then the alarm bells should be ringing very loud.

Despite the lead thanks to Taiwo Awoniyi’s early header, Forest never looked comfortable and just after halftime they were blown away by three Fulham goals in the space of six tumultuous minutes.

Forest was cut open and outsmarted with embarrassing ease as Tosin Adarabioyo nodded in from a corner, Joao Palhinha batted in a memorable second and Harrison Reed scored his first Fulham goal in his 81st appearance.

There was hope when Lewis O’Brien withdrew one, but Forest made no money. Steve Cooper has a lot to think about during the international break.

After a fortnight reflecting on how his team squandered a two-goal lead to lose to Bournemouth, Cooper made three changes to this meeting with another club who promoted with them in May.

Captain Joe Worrall, who hadn’t missed a league game for a long time when he was fit, went out and Willy Boly came in.

Jesse Lingard got the cut, as did Cheikhou Kouyate, while Remo Freuler and Awoniyi replaced them.

Cooper has stunning luxury to choose from. Forest signed 22 players over the summer, so theoretically any bad performance will get you dumped from the squad and that’s how it was here.

Fulham boss Marco Silva introduced the tall, lean figure of Issa Diop into the middle of his defense as Tim Ream was pushed to the left. Willian, one of the most surprising Premier League signings of the summer, made his full debut.

Fulham got off to a better start, but they were 11 minutes behind. Morgan Gibbs-White saw his shot change direction for a corner after Brennan Johnson shot in from the right to lead.

Gibbs-White swung at a dangerous angle that captain of the night Ryan Yates encountered as he flew over the Fulham defenders.

But he couldn’t aim the header, instead diverting it to the back post when the alert Awoniyi justified Cooper’s decision to start him off with a header of his own.

Fulham was stung by the goal, but reacted well. Given the form Aleksandar Mitrovic is in, they always threaten when they can get him on the ball.

The hulking striker curled one shot wide after Andreas Pereira jumped him out of the air, before Mitrovic had to be knocked out by the Forest defenders after Kenny Tete’s slick pass made him clear.

The visitors felt distressed as Willian was passed on by Mitrovic, with the 34-year-old passing 31-year-old Steve Cook before the Forest man grabbed his shoulders and dragged him down just outside the penalty area.

Referee Jarred Gillett decided that Cook did not qualify as last man and only produced the yellow card, and replays suggested Boly was covering.

Moments later from a Fulham corner, Mitrovic’s header was blocked by Dean Henderson at the near post without the keeper doing just enough.

Forest nearly doubled their lead within seconds of the restart when Gibbs-White released Johnson, only for the young attacker’s touch to let him down.

And that would be costly if Fulham equalized with their first set piece of the second half.

While Forest’s defenders focused on blocking Mitrovic, Adarabioyo took the scenic route from the back of the penalty area to reach Willian’s corner and plant a header into the bottom corner.

Forest had spent too many resources trying to stop one great man, they neglected another.

Three minutes later, the turnaround was complete—and breathtakingly.

Willian was again the architect on the right and ran forward before finding Kenny Tete. The defender had the vision to see Palhinha lurking on the edge of the penalty area and the ball was sweetly hit and screeched into the top corner.

The City Ground, in mourning a few minutes earlier, was well and truly silenced and a few minutes later things got even better for Fulham.

This time it was Bobby De Cordova-Reid who showed his intention on the left and his cut-back seemed to miss everyone until Reed arrived and fired a shot home to end the drought of his Fulham- goal.

Forest looked buried, but substitute O’Brien gave them hope after Johnson’s pass was approved, but Fulham held on.