Saturday 6 August 2016 21:03, UK
Philippe Montanier insisted his side would be doing more defensive work on the training ground after a 4-3 win over Burton.
Forest came through against their promoted opponents at the City Ground, helped by two goals from Britt Assombalonga.
They did not score four goals in any matches last season so the goal glut was welcome. But Frenchman Montanier also saw Forest suffer a nervous finish to the Sky Bet Championship match.
Goals from Lucas Akins and Lloyd Dyer saw newly-promoted Burton respond strongly to Assombalonga's opener. Thomas Lam equalised on the stroke of half-time - and an Oliver Burke strike and Assombalonga's second goal seemed to put Forest in control.
However, Burton had other ideas as substitute Tom Naylor made it 4-3 heading into five minutes of injury time.
"We tried to have an offensive approach and we did that to a good level," Montanier said. "But now we need to work on the defensive side of things, because we cannot expect to score four goals in every game.
"It is something we have to work on, the defensive level of things. But this is only the first game and we have plenty of time to improve on these things.
"Of course I am happy after a victory in my first game. But it was very difficult for us, against a good team - but also because we did not manage things very well at the end of the match."
The average age of Forest's side was just under 23 and included Matty Cash and Alex Iacovitti making their first starts.
"We played a good game, with young players. We had five players involved who had come through the academy," said Montanier. "I felt goose-bumps on my arms, because the atmosphere was fantastic."
Nigel Clough, returning to the club where he made his name as a player under his father, Brian, felt there had been some good fortune involved for Forest.
"It was a defeat but we can take a lot of positives from that," Clough said. "We were unlucky not to take a point or even three from the game. The players are disappointed because they felt they should have taken something. They (Forest) scored four goals - and three of them came after shots had taken big deflections off our players.
"The fourth one certainly did, when the ball looped over Jon McLaughlin's head and ended up with a tap-in for him (Assombalonga).
"Three out of the four goals had some degree of good fortune involved in them. We were defending well and getting in good blocks, but every time the ball seemed to fall to a man in a red shirt. We had to be better in the build-up to the goals.
"We are resilient and we almost got an equaliser in injury time. I thought it was going to go in for us."
