Enciso rescues point in storm for Ipswich to deny Nottingham Forest

Amid a Suffolk squall, winds whipping in, a constant drum of rain, an encounter full of half-chances, mistakes and questions. Do Ipswich have the stones to deal with the big league this time? Perhaps so. How long can Nottingham Forest’s dip sustain before their president, Evangelos Marinakis, takes his usual course of action. Perhaps not much longer.

Ipswich’s Gary O’Neil should be the happier manager, Forest creating the cleaner opportunities, only for familiar failings to count against them. A first-half exchange of goals, both owing much to defensive laxness, determined the result.

A long time since 1978, that year’s FA Cup winners taking on the First Division champions. So many shifting sands since, Ipswich’s aim is to establish themselves as Forest have in the Premier League. Liam Delap’s presence in the Forest ranks, the striker barracked on every touch, served as a reminder of the failed mission of two seasons ago.

Not that Forest or their manager can be presumptive. Oliver Glasner’s team had collected five points from seven matches, a single win. A record of starting slow only to flourish at previous clubs has offered protection, though Forest’s ownership is not like others. Wednesday was the anniversary of Sean Dyche’s appointment. That tenure lasted just 100 days. At Portman Road Glasner reached 40.

The return of Morgan Gibbs-White, missing against Arsenal, was welcome as perhaps was playing away from the City Ground, where form continues to be rotten, whoever the manager. Forest kicked off as lowest scorers in the division, no side had drawn a blank more often.

Their drought did not take long to break. Early stages had seen both teams’ No 10s to the fore, Julio Enciso firing wide, Gibbs-White creating forcing an early chance for Delap to miss the target. Ipswich’s soft centre had been exposed and Neco Williams’s goal came via an overlap and a looping cross from Daniel Muñoz, the player Glasner brought with him from Crystal Palace. Williams glided in unmarked, his low finish true.

Another Forest goal appeared the likelier though Gibbs-White cutting inside and booming his shot wide drew a response from Ipswich. Home fans, previously exasperated, were lifted by Jaden Philogene forcing a save from Matz Sels and then Enciso dancing through red shirts to force another. Pushing onwards left gaps, only Leif Davis’s goalline intervention stopped Gibbs-White’s goalbound shot.

The equaliser came via the collective loss of concentration characteristic of Forest’s 11 October defeat at Crystal Palace. Jair Cunha gallivanted forward, adrenaline coursing, his touch eventually betraying him. Dara O’Shea’s clearance was poorly dealt with by Nikola Milenkovic, the resulting back-pass even more slack. It was left to Enciso to exhibit calm.

Forest failing to claim rewards on offer from the first half told a familiar story. So too are repeated refereeing controversies, and attendant howls of conspiracy among their supporters. How the officials, led by Thomas Bramall the referee, did not view Issa Diop’s clattering of James McAtee, clean through, as a foul defied belief. More understandable, if still highly debatable, was the verdict via video assistant that McAtee had lost possession as the collision came. Diop’s yellow card and a resultant free-kick that came to naught were little consolation.

Injustice, though, did fuel Forest, both Williams and Murillo firing in shots among a flurry of chances. Murillo missed a far easier chance when granted a free header from a corner, before Davis made another last-ditch intervention when Dan Ndoye, in open space, had beaten Christian Walton.

That asked the staying power from Ipswich that brought wins from Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Fulham. So far, they have been the soft touch under Gary O’Neil as they became in Kieran McKenna’s survival attempt.

That asked the staying power from Ipswich that brought wins from Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Fulham. So far, they have not been the soft touch under Gary O’Neil as they became in Kieran McKenna’s survival attempt.

Delap leapt highest to seize on a mistake by Abdoul Ouatarra, only to head wide. More jeers, more following when a barrelling run was followed by a shot wide. Williams’ night came to an end after an awkward fall among a flurry of late substitutions

One of the arrivals, Callum Hudson-Odoi, as eight minutes of injury-time were added, received the time and space to do far better than fire wide. The story of the night for Forest and of their season.