Latest Nottingham Forest news as Vitor Pereira’s Reds beaten 2-1 by Brighton and Hove Albion in Premier League clash
17:08, 01 Mar 2026Updated 17:10, 01 Mar 2026
Head coach Vitor Pereira of Nottingham Forest during the Premier League match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest at Amex Stadium
Head coach Vitor Pereira admitted some of his Nottingham Forest players were suffering from fatigue as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion.
After falling behind to Diego Gomez’s early strike, Morgan Gibbs-White equalised for the visitors in the 13th minute. But parity did not last long as Danny Welbeck restored the Seagulls’ lead just two minutes later.
The Reds remain just two points above the bottom three with 10 Premier League games to go. They must balance their battle for survival with competing in the Europa League, with Sunday afternoon’s trip to the south coast coming a few days after Thursday night’s play-off clash with Fenerbahce.
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“First half was very difficult,” Pereira said. “To press in the way we want to, we need energy. In the first half, we tried to press as if we had a full tank of energy.
“What we learned from the first half is about the trigger to press together. We started to press individually, thinking we had a full tank of energy to press.
“We conceded space we cannot concede against this type of team. We reacted to the goal and equalised, but we still had the same problems defending.
“They (Brighton) prepared in seven days, not in three days as we did. They tried to press us and we didn’t find the proper spaces to go. They scored again after a mistake.
“We adjusted the system in the second half. We didn’t concede anything to them and we had one or two chances.
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“We lost an opportunity to get points. We should put our focus on this game because the next game is (Manchester) City; it means recover and try to rest and prepare to face them, not think about the future because we don ‘t know what will happen in the future.
“We tried to get points from this game, but it was not possible. We need to learn from the first half and take the good things from the second half.”
Pereira had shuffled his pack in midweek in a bid to rest some players, with Gibbs-White among them. How to juggle his squad to compete on two fronts remains a big challenge for the Portuguese.
“We rested Morgan for the last game. It makes a big difference,” Pereira said.
“If I didn’t change for the last game, imagine today. Competing in the Europa League and competing again after three days, we needed to understand the proper times to press and the proper times to wait, the proper time to go fast or the proper time to keep the ball.”
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