Forest turn Maresca’s start sour at City Ground

Sky Sports reported that Liam Delap scored twice for Forest, with Jair Cunha also on target, as City lost for a third straight Premier League game. Rayan Cherki briefly gave the visitors a route back with a goal early in the second half, but Delap’s second finished the argument.

The game had already turned ugly for City inside 18 minutes. Sky said Cunha dispossessed Josko Gvardiol and ran through to score, before Xaver Schlager won the ball in midfield and sent Delap through to make it 2-0. That sequence says plenty on its own. Forest were sharper, harder at it and far more certain of what the evening required.

City did create chances. Sky said Erling Haaland rounded Matz Sels only to see Cunha clear his shot, and Cherki’s strike cut the lead after the break. But the pattern did not really change. Forest carried the greater force, and when Morgan Gibbs-White fed Delap on the break, his angled finish made it 3-1 and set off the stadium.

There was relief in that noise as much as joy. Sky described it as a long-awaited home win for Forest after a barren run in front of goal there, and said the result lifted Oliver Glasner’s side out of the drop zone.

For Maresca, the BBC’s summary caught the sharper detail: he left with those chants ringing in his ears, his “dream start” now sounding a lot different away from the opening weeks.