Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has expressed disappointment with his side’s performance after they were held to a goalless draw at Sturm Graz in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday night.
The Tricky Trees had recorded their first win of the league phase on match-day three, after they battled to a 2-0 win over Porto in Sean Dyche’s first game in charge.
The former Burnley coach made several alterations to the starting lineup, leaving several regulars out of the squad with one eye on this weekend’s EPL clash against Leeds United.
“I think particularly first half, dominant, not just with the ball, but dominating the chances created and the quality of chances”, Dyche said after the match.
“Other than the penalty, which is obviously a great chance, but the chances we had from set-pieces, some of those final moments where we just didn’t capitalise.
“So more frustrated in the sense of not scoring a goal because the first half was a very dominant performance with the ball, but also creating good chances.”
Morgan Gibbs-White wasted an opportunity to open the scoring from the penalty spot, after his weak kick was saved by the opposing goalkeeper.
It marked a first penalty miss by the Englishman since his arrival at the club, after converting all previous four excluding shootout.
The English side also had several opportunities to take the lead, but were denied by good goalkeeping and a couple of poor finishing.
Nicolas Dominguez could have snatched a late winner, but his power drive was deflected onto the crossbar.
“There were some really good performances. You come away frustrated overall because I thought we were were the strongest side overall”, the Forest boss added.
“And if we take those chances, the game often opens up and you fancy yourselves to go and score again.”
Forest moved up to five points from their opening four matches and head back into action in the EPL this weekend when they face Leeds United.
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