Perhaps the biggest compliment that can be paid to Callum O’Hare is that even Nottingham Forest fans were hailing his performance on Wednesday night.
In truth, the Coventry City play-maker didn’t deserve to be on the losing side at the City Ground.
O’Hare appeared to have stolen a point for Mark Robins’ side at the home of the two-time European champions, guiding a clinical header into the corner after timing a late run into the penalty area to perfection.
But, thanks to a last-gasp Lyle Taylor penalty, it was Nottingham Forest who were celebrating the hardest of hard-fought wins; one that leaves Coventry just a point above the relegation zone.
Yet as long as O’Hare is playing like this, slaloming through challenges and outshining established, proven Championship talents, then the Sky Blues will always have a chance.
And a Solihull-born attacker who had long been compared to Jack Grealish by sections of the Aston Villa support certainly showed his old employers what they are missing in midweek, five months after he was released by the Premier League outfit.
O’Hare produced a performance Grealish himself would have been proud of in Nottingham, providing not only cutting edge and defence-splitting skill from his number ten role but a real goal threat too.
The 22-year-old also drew countless fouls from the Forest defence in a manner reminiscent of Villa’s talismanic number ten.
Marc Albrighton became a Premier League winner, two years after being released by Aston Villa. O’Hare might not go that far but he’s certainly making a real impression away from Bodymoor Heath.
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