Forest and Villa played out an enthralling 5-5 draw at Villa Park.
Nottingham Forest failed to take advantage of two leads against Aston Villa as the two sides played out an enthralling 5-5 draw at Villa Park on Wednesday night – and Forest fans are not impressed with goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon.
The 31-year-old has played every single minute of Aston Villa’s Championship campaign this season, coming into the match having only conceded 16 goals in 18 games all season. 90 minutes later, he had let in 21.
Forest took a surprise 2-0 lead within 10 minutes, through former player Lewis Grabban who tapped home, before Joao Carvalho toed a second past Orjan Nyland. But Villa replied – Yannick Bolasie’s cross was headed in by Tammy Abraham.
Pantilimon’s first mistake came when dropping a John McGinn shot, which Abraham mopped up to make it 2-2. Half-time was still quite some way away when Matty Cash made it 3-2 to Forest. Bolasie got a second assist, winning a penalty – duly dispatched by Abraham for his hat-trick. Half-time struck, with the score at 3-3.
Joe Lolley then made his mark with a wonderful 25-yard effort that left Nyland stranded. Then, Tobias Figuerido was sent off for a lunge on McGinn and from the resulting free-kick, Abraham headed home his fourth – 4-4.
Anwar El Ghazi marked his recall with an excellent effort to put Villa 5-4 up, but former striker Grabban came back to strike again with eight minutes remaining – squeezing the ball past Nyland to save a point.
Other than his mistake for Abraham’s second, ex-Manchester City goalkeeper Pantilimon was nowhere near Villa’s four other goals and Forest fans were largely critical of his display on Twitter.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
