Latest Nottingham Forest news as Sean Dyche's Reds draw 0-0 with Sturm Graz in Europa League clash
20:58, 06 Nov 2025Updated 21:05, 06 Nov 2025
Sean Dyche before Sturm Graz vs Nottingham Forest
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Sean Dyche before Sturm Graz vs Nottingham Forest(Image: Jure Makovec/Getty Images)
Sean Dyche was left with mixed emotions after Nottingham Forest had to settle for a goalless draw away to Sturm Graz in the Europa League.
The Reds certainly had enough chances to come away from Austria with more than a point. They notched up a confidence-boosting clean-sheet, but couldn’t make some good pressure count at the other end of the pitch.
James McAtee spurned a good opportunity early on and Ryan Yates had a header cleared off the line soon after. Morgan Gibbs-White then had a penalty saved before Nicolas Dominguez saw a deflected effort cannon off the bar in the closing minutes.
Dyche had made seven changes to his starting line-up as injuries and unavailability limited his options. It meant the likes of Arnaud Kalimuendo, McAtee and goalkeeper John Victor were handed rare starts.
“I think it’s both frustration and being pleased with a point,” Dyche said. “We’re obviously threadbare.
“We’ve had players playing who ideally you wouldn’t just throw into a game like this – you’d try to give them games away from this sort of competition to get them ready. More so with Kali (Arnaud Kalimuendo); he's been thrown in at the deep end a little bit.
“We were limited with changes from the bench. We would have preferred to have made more changes earlier in the game.”
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He added: “On the other hand, the frustration side of the performance is that we created so many good chances, more so in the first half. They're golden chances, they're chances that change the whole feel of the game because we were dominant and we're playing some decent stuff.
“We were affecting the game, looked a threat from set-pieces, looked a threat from open play and the whole feel changes when you score goals. And we didn't.
“That's the frustrating part because I think overall we should come away from here with a win. I thought that was clear from the performance, in my opinion.”
Kalimuendo made way in the closing stages after appearing to suffer from cramp. McAtee had already been brought off by that point, with Dyche turning to defenders Murillo and Zach Abbott due to the shortage of attacking back-up.
Dyche continued: “I’m pleased in the sense of the effort and the physical side of the game; the way Macca has put his lot in, Kali has put his lot in. We’re having to be careful and we had to get them off in case of further injury.
“I think it's just cramp. But when the body's getting to that stage, you can often get muscle injuries. Trying to upscale the fitness of the group is difficult because we've got so many injuries.”
Attention now turns to Forest's crunch showdown with Leeds United on Sunday in the Premier League ahead of the international break.
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