Nottingham Forest Vs. Swansea City, 2011 nPower Championship Playoffs: 0-0 Full Time

If you think that 0-0 implies a boring game, think again. Nottingham Forest and Swansea City played an absolute thriller in the first leg of their 2011 Championship playoff semifinal at the City Ground, and it was only due to some stellar goalkeeping, a poor decision by the referee, and some plain bad luck that neither team was able to score. Both teams had plenty of chances to score, but neither was able to convert. After sealing a draw in Nottingham, Swansea will feel confident going back to Wales, where they will have the home crowd behind them.

They will also likely have 11 men for more than one minute in the return leg, a luxury they did not experience in this game. That’s because young defender Neil Taylor got sent off after making a terrible studs-up tackle into the thigh of Lewis McGugan just 52 seconds into the game, for which Mike Dean rightfully showed him a red card.

Swansea were not deterred by their disadvantage, though, and they were absolutely brilliant throughout the first half. Their central midfielders worked extremely hard, their wingers were dangerous, and Fabio Borini was brilliant up top, forcing Lee Camp into multiple saves.

However, Borini was removed due to injury just 10 minutes into the second half. Forest had already been the better team to start the second half, but they really started to dominate when Borini was removed. Luke Moore had a couple of good efforts out on the counter-attack, even forcing Lee Camp into a good save on one occasion, but he did not have the hold-up play or off the ball movement of Borini.

In the 71st minute, Forest were denied a clear penalty kick. Referee Mike Dean had a generally great game, making the right calls on almost all of his difficult decisions, but due to missing a very clear handball by Ashley Williams in the penalty box, an offense for which a penalty should have been given and Williams should have seen a yellow card, he will be remembered as the goat of the match in the eyes of the Forest supporters. Such is the nature of being a referee. On the ensuing corner kick, Robert Earnshaw had a goal disallowed for offsides, but this time Mike Dean’s crew was spot on with their decision.

For the remainder of the game, Forest held 80 percent of the possession. However, Swansea did well keeping their shape with 10 men, and Forest - a team who is best on the counter-attack and set pieces - was absolutely devoid of ideas when it came to breaking down a Swansea side whose first priority was to take the counter out of the equation. They got the 0-0 draw that they began to look for once Borini came off, and they’ll feel good about their chances of advancing after the second leg in Wales.