The Christmas spirit was sapped out of the City Ground as Sheffield Wednesday cruised to a 3-0 win away at Nottingham Forest.
Michael Mancienne didn’t exactly cover himself in glory as Sheffield Wednesday put the icing on the cake of a very impressive win at Nottingham Forest on boxing day.
Visiting forward Lucas Joao simply sauntered past the Forest skipper to slam home the third goal in a dismal home defeat that had the supporters up in arms and questioning, ever more vocally, the future of under-fire manager Mark Warburton.
In truth, Mancienne’s performance rather summed up Forest’s defensive performances across the last three years – not just the nine months Warburton has been at the helm.
The former England Under-21 captain was hardly the worst player on the pitch at the City Ground and, in fact, he made a number of impressive blocks against managerless Wednesday in the first half.
But when Mancienne is on the pitch, defensive errors never seem too far away and the nature of Wednesday’s clinching goal, with the ex-Chelsea youngster allowing Joao to cut inside with all the time in the world, epitomised Forest’s long-running penchant for conceding soft goals.
Needless to say, performances like this don’t help when you’re trying to avoid a repeat of last season’s eleventh hour escape from relegation. And with Warburton’s side winning one of their last six, you can understand why the fans are getting a little irate.
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