Nottingham Forest
Brice Samba makes admission about substitution in Nottingham Forest’s play-off win yesterday
After seeing off Sheffield United across two legs in the semi-finals of the play-offs, Nottingham Forest took on Huddersfield Town yesterday in the final.
After winning the first leg of the play-offs 2-1, a 2-1 win to the Blades in the second leg took the game to extra time and penalties.
However, Brice Samba’s confident display in the penalty shootout saw Steve Cooper’s side through to the final.
Samba put in another solid display at the weekend as his side gained promotion to the Premier League seeing off Huddersfield 1-0 and the goalkeeper dealing with any Huddersfield threat comfortably.
However, the 28-year-old was forced off in the 90th minute of the game ahead of the six added minutes due to an injury meaning he wasn’t able to carry on.
Amongst the joy of the win, fans took to Twitter to check on their player and as one fan asked what caused the injury, the goalkeeper felt it was a blessing in disguise as he replied: “I’m not sure what I got [injury wise] but I would have wasted so much time after that it was better to take me off believe me.”
I'm not sure what I got but i would have wasted so much time after that it was better to take me off believe me 😂😂😂 💩🏡 https://t.co/woBBF3XsOi
— Brice Samba (@samba_brice) May 29, 2022
Luckily for Forest, Ethan Horvath kept his composure as the Terriers pushed everything forward in the final minutes of the game meaning his side’s promotion was secured.
Quiz: Can you name which club Nottingham Forest sold these 23 players to from the last decade?
The Verdict:
If this injury was going to happen anytime in a game, you would want it to be the last minute of normal time because it reduces the amount of work you have to do without your goalkeeper on the pitch who has played a standout role in the play-off campaign.
However, the Reds would no doubt have been feeling nervous too as Huddersfield had nothing to lose in those final six minutes and therefore were throwing everything forward in hope of getting a goal.
Although, as Samba says himself, given the fact that just minutes prior to the substitution the Forest goalkeeper was getting warned by the referee about time wasting, you do feel as though a card could’ve come his way and therefore maybe it was best he had to come off when he did.
Considering Huddersfield players were complaining about the time it took him to leave the pitch as a substitution, you could see that Samba was doing everything he could to time waste and get his side closer to the full time whistle.
