Sabri Lamouchi 'disappointed' as injury-time equaliser denies Nottingham Forest victory at Sheffield Wednesday

Connor Wickham was left unmarked to head home from close range in the third minute of stoppage time for the hosts, after Joe Lolley had put Forest ahead with 20 minutes to play.

Sabri, fresh from signing a new contract to remain at the club for another year at least, said: “I’m just disappointed for the players, that they ran, they fought like they did today.

“Of course, it’s a lot better with three points than one point.

“I’m disappointed at the end, because it’s not an easy place to score first here, to get a result here.

“We just need to keep working on the small details and after three or four games it will be a lot better.

“We want to be in the play-offs and we’ll give our best for that.”

In truth, a draw was a fair result as both teams had chances in an entertaining, but surreal game played against a backdrop of the cavernous, but empty stands of Hillsborough Stadium.

Forest made three changes from the side beaten 3-0 at home by Millwall in their last game, way back in early March – Ryan Yates replaced the injured Ben Watson, while Alfa Semedo and Joao Carvalho dropped to the bench as Brennan Johnson, for his first league start, and Tiago Silva, back from injury, came in.

Despite the lack of atmosphere, after a minute’s silence for coronavirus victims and the players and officials ‘taking a knee’ in support of Black Lives Matter, the game got off to a bright start, both teams looking good going forward.

The Owls, clearly aware of Forest’s defensive deficiencies against strikers of height, had Connor Wickham leading the line alongside Jordan Rhodes, who had netted a first-half hat-trick in Wednesday’s 4-0 win at the City Ground earlier in the season.

In the first half, Wickham came closs with a far-post header blocked on the line by Joe Worrall, to appeals from the home side about use of an arm, while Rhodes missed the home side’s best chance, closed down quickly by Brice Samba from Bannan’s clever through-ball.

At the other end, Forest were restricted to half chances, Johnson heading Silva’s free-kick just over, while Lolley delayed when well placed and saw his shot blocked when found in space in the area by captain-for-the-day Lewis Grabban.

Silva then fired a free-kick just over the bar, while Grabban could not get on any power on his goalbound header after good work by Lolley, giving Joe Wildsmith an easy save as the first-half finished goalless.

The lack of atmosphere was having little effect on the tempo of an entertaining game, Wednesday’s large main stand amplifying the shouts of the two benches, particularly Forest’s.

Wednesday should have had the lead just short of the hour mark when Brice Samba misjudged Jacob Murphy’s cross and Wickham saw his header rebound off the post, while Kieran Lee’s follow-up was denied by a stunning goal-line clearance by Joe Worrall.

Almost immediately it was Forest’s turn to miss a great chance, Johnson’s low cross just too quick for Grabban to reach, sliding in at the far post.

Forest finally broke the deadlock in the 69th minute. Lolley sprung the offside trap to run on to Matty Cash’s long ball down the right wing, cut in and firest low across Wildsmith and into the bottom corner.

Wednesday stepped up the pressure as time ticked on, Wickham denied when three FOrest players threw themselves in the way of his goalbound shot, before Kadeem Harris went down under Lolley’s challenge inthe box, but referee Rob Jones waved away the appeals, including particularly loud ones from Owls boss Garry Monk on the side line.

But Forest could not hold on and Wednesday finally secured the equaliser their overall play probably deserved,

It was a sickener for Forest though, coming have the ball in the net for the qualiser they probably deserved in injury time, Wickham holding off Figuereido to head powerfully into the net from close range, giving Samba no chance as the points were shared.

Forest: Samba; Cash, Ribeiro, Figuereido, Worrall; Yates, Silva (Bostock, 85); Lolley, Johnson (Da Costa, 62), Ameobi (Semedo, 62); Grabban (Diakhaby, 90+1). Subs not used: Smith, Jenkinson, Dawson, Carvalho, Mighten.