Nuno Espirito Santo praised his Nottingham Forest side for “finding the details” to beat Southampton 1-0 at St Mary’s and record their first victory of the season.
A game of few chances was settled in the 70th minute by Morgan Gibbs-White producing a rare moment of precision to capitalise on a botched attempt at clearing a corner by Saints, thumping the ball in at the second attempt after his initial header was scrambled off the line.
Forest looked likelier to add a second goal than Southampton did to hit back, only goalkeeper Alex McCarthy standing between the visitors and a more commanding victory. The goalkeeper stood up well to save from Neco Williams before showing brilliant reach to beat away Callum Hudson-Odoi’s curling drive.
“I think we played a good game,” said Santo. “We dominated, controlled the tempo of the game, created situations. It’s always tough to play away from home.
“This is the first step towards improvement, but overall a very good performance. Second half there was a spell when we weren’t able to press for 10 or 15 minutes. That was really tough.
“We always try to find details that we can see and correct, knowing that after the first half we still had 45 minutes to go.
“We are asking a lot from the players, demanding a lot from them. It’s been slowly positive towards that direction.”
Forest had dominated the first half without finding a way through. Defender Nikola Milenkovic ought to have marked his debut with a goal, arriving in the six-yard box to meet Chris Wood’s driven cross but somehow contriving to knock the ball wide of an open goal.
Ibrahim Sangare brought a fingertip save from McCarthy with a 30-yard bullet, and the visitors were almost the recipients of supreme good fortune when Saints defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis played an errant back pass that deceived his goalkeeper and rolled just wide.
As well as Milenkovic, Santo handed a debut to Elliot Anderson, the midfielder signed from Newcastle during the summer.
“I think they (the debutants) did a good game,” said Santo. “The quality they have, the players that we’ve brought in, we believe in them. I think it was a positive game from them.
“What we want is knowing that when we have all the squad, we have solutions.”
Saints boss Russell Martin, who saw his team register a single shot on target in their first top-flight match at home in 15 months, reflected on a game that turned against his side due to their own defensive laxity.
“We conceded from a rubbish set-piece,” he said. “We shouldn’t give the ball away for the corner in the first place. We had a moment to secure the ball in a moment when we were so on top.
“We had started to cause them real problems. Then we gave them a corner, had a chance to clear it and we don’t. I don’t know what goes on after that but it’s not good enough. I’m annoyed at that.”
