Southampton 0-1 Nottingham Forest: Morgan Gibbs-White scores winner for Nuno Espirito’s men against newly promoted Saints

The fact that you can take 23 shots on target and still only win 1-0 says something about the winners Nottingham Forest and the home team Southampton.

Morgan Gibbs-White’s breakthrough in the 70th minute saw the visitors make the most of the heavy pressure they had been putting on St Mary’s throughout the match.

Forest were helped in large part by Southampton’s well-intentioned but ultimately damaging insistence on playing from the back, particularly in the first half. Indeed, against a more clinical side they might have suffered a heavier defeat.

Forest should have taken the lead in the 16th minute when Ola Aina found Chris Wood at the far post, but his header was gratefully saved by Alex McCarthy.

The home side had a lot of possession, but repeated loss of possession prevented them from building up any momentum in a frustrating first half.

Gibbs-White scored when the ball fell favourably for him after his initial header was blocked

The Nottingham Forest captain scored after the visitors had missed several chances

“We looked at it carefully, at the role of Jack Stephens who overloads the midfield and creates a penalty area,” Espirito Santo admitted.

“We have it under control, especially in the first half. But it’s very difficult. They’re a good team.”

The chances kept coming for Forest, with Nikola Milenkovic missing the best of the bunch from a yard, but it was still level at half-time.

Russell Martin made a proactive change at half-time, with Will Smallbone and Joe Aribo coming higher. The Saints were more present in attack, but the problem lay in defence.

Despite an improved performance, the inevitable eventually happened. Aribo was dispossessed by Callum Hudson-Odoi on the edge of the penalty area in the 70th minute, the forward picking out his captain in the penalty area, who eventually scored inside the six-yard box with the second attempt.

Southampton manager Russell Martin lamented his team conceding a goal after a ‘poor standard of play’

Southampton improved in the final stages but start the season with two consecutive defeats

“We ended up conceding a goal after a crappy set-piece,” Martin said. “We gave them a corner, we had a chance to clear it and we didn’t. It’s not good enough after all the work we do on set-pieces, so I’m angry about that.

‘We didn’t play well enough in the first half, there was a lot of tension in the team. We gave away too much which created tension in the stadium.

‘I think in our desire to make things happen we lost the ball in the last third of the game and against Forest that’s the worst thing you can do.’

By the time Southampton got the ball up the pitch more quickly it was too little too late, with Forest claiming their sixth away win since returning to the Premier League.