Yahoo Sport 
A thrilling 4-3 win provides optimism for Nottingham Forest, but poses some questions.
An early goal from Britt Assombalonga, two second half goals from Oliver Burke and an injury time winner from Thomas Lam was enough to see off Wigan Athletic in a gripping game at the City Ground. Michael Jacobs equalised shortly after Assombalonga’s early goal to see the match poised at 1-1 at half time. It could have been more for the reds at half time, as Matty Cash hit the post from a long range attempt, and Kasami nearly slotted in the rebound. Oliver Burke nearly scored in the first half, but Adam Bogdan, Wigan’s goal keeper stood firm to keep the ball out.
Unfortunately, Assombalonga appeared to injured himself during the process of scoring. Thankfully it sounds as if he won’t be out for too long. Forest certainty missed him after he came off, although he only played for just fifteen minutes. Danny Fox also picked up an injury in the first half, with Vellios and Lichaj replacing Assombalonga and Fox respectively.
Burke found the net twice in the second half. Firstly, Burke scored from a fantastic long ball by Chris Cohen. Shortly after, Chris Cohen was pushed over in the penalty box by Craig Morgan, but Adam Bogdan made a good save from a soft Vellios strike. Will Griggs equalised for the visitors with a free header in the box, before Burke’s second goal assisted by Matty Cash. A sloppy 86th minute equaliser by Griggs appeared to be enough to see both sides share a point, but Pereira assisted Thomas Lam in the 93rd minute to see Nottingham Forest win their second home game of the season, with a second 4-3 victory of the season.
Forest have now conceded ten goals in four league games this season, posing serious questions to be asked of the defence. Whilst the defence looked better than in recent games, both Will Griggs goals should have been dealt with. Firstly, Pereira, who I believe played well going forward, allowed Luke Garbutt to put a cross in to Griggs, and neither Cohen nor Mancienne were able to stop him. From a throw in, Mancienne attempted to head the ball behind, but doing so, passed it to Griggs allowing him to score easily from close range.
Whilst, there were negatives, there were some fantastic performances to praise. Oliver Burke had a fantastic game, and proved why he should start regularly, as Forest missed his creativity against Brentford. Nineteen year old Matty Cash played brilliantly too, and provided an assist, a future talent. The defence did look better, and it was good to see Montanier start with four at the back, after three at the back failed against Brighton. Whilst I was critical of Mancienne’s mistakes, it is important that his experience provided stability in the back four throughout the match.
Up next is an away game at Millwall in the second round of the EFL Cup. Millwall, who just missed out on promotion, have won two, drawn one and lost 5-1 in their four league matches. The reds have a fantastic opportunity to progress to the third round on Tuesday, but Millwall will be a tough test. Montanier has declared his desire to do well in the EFL Cup, and hopefully this will be reflected with a strong starting eleven on Tuesday.
Overall, with positives performances, defence looking a bit better and a chance of progressing to third round of the EFL Cup, there is plenty of reason to be optimistic for this coming week.
