Nottingham Forest Held to 1-1 Draw by Ipswich Despite Dominance

Nottingham Forest walked off at Portman Road with a point and a familiar, nagging feeling: how on earth did they not win?

They bossed Ipswich for long spells, racked up 17 shots, generated 2.31 expected goals and still had only Neco Williams’ crisp first-half finish to show for it in a 1-1 draw that laid bare their crisis of conviction in front of goal.

By full-time, the numbers said dominance. The scoreboard said something very different.

Forest on the front foot, Ipswich hanging on

From the first whistle, Forest played like a side insulted by their league position. With the wind at their backs, they pressed high, snapped into challenges and forced Ipswich deep.

Inside six minutes, Jair Cunha had already tested Christian Walton, the Ipswich goalkeeper beaten only by the sting of the shot straight at him. It set the tone. Forest were aggressive, direct, and hungry.

The breakthrough, when it came on 13 minutes, was a move that matched their intent. Daniel Muñoz bent in a superb cross from the right, Williams ghosted in at the far post and swept home with authority. A full-back’s finish, but a striker’s timing. Forest, at that stage, looked every inch the superior side.

The lead should have grown. It almost did when Walton’s outstretched boot and a desperate goal-line intervention from Leif Davis combined to somehow keep out a second Forest effort. Ipswich were creaking. Portman Road knew it.

Then Forest blinked.

One mistake, one punishment

On 41 minutes, with the visitors in total control, Nikola Milenkovic tried to roll a simple pass back to Matz Sels. He got it horribly wrong. The ball died halfway, Julio Enciso pounced, strode onto the loose pass and slid in the equaliser with cold composure.

Ipswich had barely threatened. Yet they were level.

Forest’s body language told its own story. A team that has underperformed its finishing all season had just been punished for a rare defensive lapse. The numbers are brutal: no side in the division has missed more of what they create. Six goals from 13.4 expected goals now. One win in eight games. Performances that look mid-table; returns that scream relegation scrap.

The Diop flashpoint

If wastefulness was one theme, controversy was another.

Early in the second half, James McAtee burst through, nudging the ball to the right of goal before Ipswich defender Issa Diop came crashing through him. The initial feeling was clear: Forest players surrounded Thomas Bramall, convinced they had seen a red-card offence and a free-kick for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

VAR sent the referee to the pitchside monitor. The stadium held its breath.

Bramall’s verdict, delivered over the tannoy, only inflamed the away end: foul by Ipswich No.6, but because McAtee had pushed the ball to the right, it was judged a yellow card and a direct free-kick, not a red.

Oliver Glasner did not hide his frustration afterwards. “It felt during the game it's a clear red card. I think it was the wrong decision,” the Forest head coach said, his irritation barely disguised.

Former Forest boss Steve Cooper, watching on television duty, cut a more nuanced line. He called it “as clear a free-kick as probably there was in the whole game” and admitted the red card debate would split opinion. Forest, unsurprisingly, felt aggrieved. Ipswich would have felt just as wronged had the decision gone the other way.

What was undeniable: it was another pivotal moment that did not fall Forest’s way.

Davis the saviour, Forest the squanderers

The second half became a siege.

Glasner’s side pinned Ipswich back, circulating the ball, dragging blue shirts from side to side and waiting for gaps. When those gaps opened, the finishing deserted them again.

Davis, already a hero for his first-half clearance, repeated the trick. On 64 minutes, Dan Ndoye looked certain to score, only for the Ipswich left-back to materialise on the line and hack the ball clear. It was brave, it was desperate, and it summed up Ipswich’s night: backs against the wall, but refusing to fold.

For Forest, the guilt was spread around. Liam Delap and Callum Hudson-Odoi both spurned chances they would expect to bury.

Delap’s big moment arrived on 74 minutes, and it came with an extra twist: against his former club. Abdoul Ouattara sliced a clearance straight into his path, the cross hung perfectly, and Delap rose unmarked. He had time, space, and the goal gaping. The header flew over.

Minutes later, he unleashed a 30-yard drive that whistled just wide. On another night, he walks away with a brace. On this one, he walked away shaking his head.

Hudson-Odoi was no less wasteful. Late on, with Ipswich tiring and gaps widening, he drilled wide when well placed. Forest’s bench sank back into their seats. It felt like the story of their season, played out in a single move.

To make matters worse, Williams, their scorer and one of their liveliest players, departed with a worrying arm injury in the closing stages. The sight of him leaving the field only deepened the sense of a night that gave Forest everything but what they needed most.

Ipswich cling on, and kick on

For Ipswich, this was not a performance of control or swagger. It was one of resilience.

They rode their luck. They relied on Davis’ clearances, Walton’s interventions and Forest’s profligacy. Yet they also showed the grit that has underpinned their strong return to the Premier League.

Gary O’Neil was quick to remind anyone listening that survival is not a given, no matter how bright the start.

“We want a second year in the Premier League but we will try and finish as high as we can,” he said. “Anyone who thinks it's going to be easy can watch tonight's game back because Forest are down the bottom of the league but they're a top side with top players. They should be a good side, the amount of money they have spent and well coached.

“Newly promoted sides can find it difficult but we have bridged that gap well. We have found a way most weeks to find a way to bridge the gap.”

Portman Road has become a more profitable home this time around. Ipswich now have as many points on their own patch this season as they managed across the entirety of their previous Premier League campaign there in 2024/25 – seven. That is not a platform they will take lightly.

Forest’s riddle in front of goal

Inside the Forest camp, the mood is conflicted. The performances are there. The results are not.

Morgan Gibbs-White spoke with a mix of frustration and defiance.

“We've had so many good performances. Again tonight, I felt like we had a lot of chances. We should have won the game,” he said. “As long as we keep performing like this, the wins are going to have to come.

This is the question we've been asking ourselves in training every week. We've been doing shooting drills and everything. If you could see how we were shooting yesterday, it was top.”

Glasner echoed the sentiment, clinging to the belief that the numbers will eventually correct themselves.

“Unfortunately they couldn't go in today. It's not good enough but I'm proud of the boys for continuing to keep going and keeping performances high,” he said. The Austrian praised the “amazing” second-half reaction, the dominance, the spirit, and insisted: “The goals will come.”

They need to. Fast.

Forest look nothing like a side sleepwalking through a season. They press, they create, they fight. Yet the table only counts what crosses the line, not what xG says should have.

On nights like this, when chances pile up and points slip away, belief can fray. The question now is simple and unforgiving: how long can they keep playing like this before the finishing finally catches up with the football?