Remarkable 18 game comparison – Newcastle United can take full advantage | OneFootball

Newcastle United welcome Nottingham Forest to St James’ Park on Sunday.

Eddie Howe and his players looking to follow up that thrilling four goal Champions League win in Brussels.

United had some memorable matches against Forest last season, three wins and eight goals scored.

The first of those a second round Carabao Cup match where Newcastle won on penalties, having missed one and initially fallen behind in the shootout, that the first step of course on the way to NUFC’s eventual triumph at Wembley in March 2025 against Liverpool.

In their first 35 matches (all competitions)  in the 2024/25 season, Nottingham Forest only lost eight matches. Three of those were against Newcastle United.

Fair to say that Forest’s success last season was built on their defending. Only the top four conceded less goals (46) than Nuno’s side in the Premier League but Forest were the lowest scorers (58) in the entire top half of the 2024/25 PL table.

A lot of talk now about how since Ange Postecoglou has taken over, Nottingham Forest’s defending has fallen apart. With no clean sheets and 13 conceded in six games (all competitions), they certainly are struggling at the back.

However, scrape below the surface and Forest’s defensive strength has been on the slide far longer.

Indeed, it is more than six months since Nottingham Forest kept a clean sheet, a 1-0 home win against Man U on 1 April 2025.

In total, 18 matches (all comps) played by Forest since then, not a single clean sheet amongst them and 31 goals conceded.

Compare that to the 18 (21 December 2024 to 1 April 2025, inclusive) games Nottingham Forest played before then that saw Forest keep a clean sheet in half (nine) of the 18, with 19 goals conceded. When you consider that they conceded five against Bournemouth and four against Newcastle United in that run, it means the other 16 games saw Nottingham Forest concede only 10 goals in them.

That looks to have all gone now AND the rot started under Nuno towards the end of last season in terms of conceding goals (and not winning many matches), it has simply continued under Ange Postecoglou.