Anderson stuns former club Newcastle with late equaliser as Forest seal safety

Where did Elliot Anderson find the strength to score the goal that ­ultimately enabled Nottingham Forest to retain their Premier League status? Not only did he show incredible endeavour to start and finish the decisive move, propelling into the six-yard box with a couple of minutes of time to run, but the England midfielder, an ever-present for Forest and now a fixture for his country, was playing 48 hours after the funeral of his mother, Helen. “There have been a few things going on recently so it felt really nice,” Anderson said by way of understatement afterwards.

After a give-and-go with James McAtee and burning past Bruno Guimarães, the Newcastle captain, rather than admiring his initial pass, Anderson flashed a shot past Nick Pope from a tight angle. As his teammates celebrated, Anderson lay on the floor with cramp. Anderson has been Forest’s best player this season by some distance, even accounting for Morgan Gibbs-White’s incredible form this calendar year and Neco Williams’s consistent displays from full-back.

The galling thing for Eddie Howe, whose side led through Harvey Barnes and have dropped a league-high 27 points from winning positions this season, was he knows all about Anderson. He joined Newcastle aged eight and was given his top-flight debut by Howe, but was reluctantly sold two years ago to satisfy the Premier League profitability and sustainability rules. On the day the 23-year-old unified all parties, with deep affection for the player on both sides.

Newcastle supporters serenaded him in the first half here and then the Forest fans had their turn. Howe conceded that his exit caused instant regret. The likelihood is Anderson will move on again this summer, with Manchester City at the front of the queue.

“We knew that would be a very, very painful transfer, one that we had to do,” said Newcastle’s head coach. “We had no choice, but it was probably the most reluctant transfer I’ll ever do, because we knew the quality of the player. He’s going to go and have a fantastic career, wherever he goes, wherever his career takes him. He’s a great lad as well, so it’s painful for us to take but he’s an outstanding player.”

Here was Anderson, one of just two Forest players to start every league game this season, again at his all-action best, amid the pain of personal tragedy. He has won the most duels in the division, played the most passes of any midfielder, the most touches and drawn more fouls than any other player. He has been outstanding across 55 matches in all competitions and is almost certain to start for England against Croatia on 17 June in the World Cup, though this was just his fourth goal of the season.

Until Barnes opened the scoring, latching on to Jacob Ramsey’s pass, arguably the moment of the match – at least from a Forest perspective – was Anderson straining every sinew to make a block on Guimarães deep inside his own half. “In the warm-up, my assistants said to me: ‘Elliot is on fire today.’ Every time that he shot on goal, he scored,” said Forest’s head coach, Vítor Pereira. “He had the funeral of his mother two days ago ... It’s difficult for me, and I believe for everybody, to understand what he is feeling inside of him, but in the end, I believe that he is honouring his mother, going inside the pitch, running until the last metre.”

Ramsey and Barnes entered on the hour and the former released the latter through on goal with a clever pass in the 74th minute. Barnes snaffled his chance, keeping the Forest defender Morato at arm’s length before burying a shot past Matz Sels in the home goal. Until then, there had been few clearcut openings, the best chances falling to Will Osula, again preferred to Yoane Wissa in attack. Sels saved from Osula in the first half after Nick Woltemade spread play to his right and in the second Osula cannoned the crossbar with a right-footed free-kick from 25 yards.

Newcastle and Howe would rue those missed chances. “If that was just once in isolation, I don’t think it would hurt as much, but I think the fact that we’ve done that all season, and it’s cost our season in the Premier League, was hugely frustrating,” Howe said. “We have to score more goals, be more clinical and put games to bed, that’s the best way of defending.” For Forest, whose eight-game unbeaten run has been the backbone of their turnaround under Pereira, a heartening end to a difficult week – Forest exited the Europa League semi-finals on Thursday, Aston Villa progressing at their expense.