The Reds were beaten 3-1 in Wednesday night’s Championship game at the City Ground.
Some Nottingham Forest fans have criticised Martin O’Neill’s post-match comments following the Championship defeat to Aston Villa.
On Wednesday night at the City Ground, Jack Colback gave Forest an early lead after his cross-shot looped over opposition goalkeeper Jed Steer just three minutes into the game.
However, John McGinn’s quickfire brace had the visitors 2-1 up by the quarter hour mark and the second half saw a Yohan Benalouane goal ruled out for offside before Kortney Hause made sure of a 3-1 victory.
The result left Forest three points off the playoffs as Dean Smith’s side leapfrogged them into eighth place in the Championship, and O’Neill insisted his side is still very much in a good position for the top six ahead of Saturday’s trip to Ipswich Town.
“We are in the hunt, very much still in the hunt and we have to go and try and win on Saturday, it’s a big game for us,” he told the official Reds website. “Tonight we just have to lick our wounds and get on with it.
“We have to come and fight again, Villa are a strong side themselves and played very well and, at the end of it all, deserved to win. We are disappointed, we are down, but we are not beaten yet.”
However, some Trickies faithful didn’t agree, suggesting on Twitter that the current crop simply isn’t good enough for a serious promotion tilt at present:
According to Sky Sports, Forest had just over 52 percent of possession against the Villans and weighed in with 14 shots, but just two of those were on target, with eight blocked by the opposition defence.
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