PL2: Nottingham Forest 0-1 Reading

I took the short trip to Loughborough to watch the B team in PL2 action last night.

The Forest B Team have been in fine form recently - well, until I turned up to watch them at least. Starting in in a back 5, Forest had 3 players you’d class as ‘senior’ in the lineup.

Lineup courtesy of @NFFCAcademy on X/Twitter

Academy product Zach Abbott started as a right sided centre back, with Jair Cunha at the heart of the back 3. Fellow ex-Botafogo player Cuiabano started at left wing back, with Jimmy Sinclair on the other side. Jack Thompson captained the side on the left of the the 3.

In midfield, Ben Hammond sat in the middle with Archie Whitehall & Blaine McClure in front of him. Lamin Sillah was up front, with Kalum Thompson playing slightly more toward the left, allowing him to try and come inside.

Forest lost the game 1-0, conceding a goal after the goalkeeper Luke Campbell fumbled a relatively soft shot before a Reading player tapped in the rebound. Both teams later had a goal disallowed, but Forest struggled to test the Reading keeper, and eventually finished the game with 10 men due to an injury.

The ‘Senior’ Players

I arrived at this game pretty excited with the lineup, a chance to get a good look up close at players Forest have high expectations of in Abbott & Cunha. You’d hope that they’d really stand out at this level, especially Jair Cunha considering his last 12 months of senior football. It seems relatively clear that Cuiabano will not be involved with the senior side, so to be fair to him I didn’t expect too much in a situation that he likely doesn’t want to be in.

Unfortunately for both Abbott & Cunha, I thought they had pretty poor outings. Abbott in particular was sloppy in possession, especially as he moved higher up the field.

Forest played Reading & Loughborough University in the PL2.