Forest's New Era Begins with Late Stach Strike

Oliver Glasner stepped into the light a few minutes before kick-off, Forest’s fifth head coach in less than a year, taking in the City Ground from the home technical area. New season, new era, new ideas. The script was written for a fresh start.

Leeds tore it up in the 88th minute.

Anton Stach, quiet for long spells, placed the night in his own hands with a vicious free-kick that snuck in at Matz Sels’s near post, the ball skidding beyond the goalkeeper’s glove and dragging him into the upright. Behind that goal, the away end exploded. Forest’s new dawn was left blinking in the glare.

Stach strikes late as Forest falter

Clear chances had been scarce, the game tight, anxious, and short on quality in the final third. Then Nikola Milenkovic lunged in clumsily on Stach right on the edge of the box. It was the kind of challenge that always feels more dangerous than it looks.

Stach placed the ball, took a breath and whipped his effort around the wall. Sels read it, reached it, but could not keep it out, ending up entangled with his post as Leeds’s players sprinted to the corner, every outfielder piling into the celebrations. Glasner, hands on hips, puffed out his cheeks.

By full time, the contrast was stark. The away section, drenched in evening sun, bounced and sang. Large swathes of the home stands had already emptied.

Ambitious Leeds carry the threat

Leeds had looked the sharper side for most of the contest, their new faces already hinting at a bolder season ahead. Harry Wilson thought he had marked his debut with a goal in the first half, darting on to Jayden Bogle’s clever pass and finishing, only to see the assistant’s flag cut short his celebration for offside.

That moment underlined Leeds’s intent. Wilson’s arrival is a clear statement of ambition, and he played like it, constantly probing between the lines.

After the break, another debutant almost stole the show. Tarik Muharemovic, a £34m signing from Sassuolo, rose powerfully to meet a cross and seemed certain to find the top corner, only for Sels to throw up a strong left hand and claw the header away. It was a superb save, and for a while it looked as though it might preserve a point.

Muharemovic impressed throughout, slotting in seamlessly alongside Joe Rodon and Jaka Bijol in a three-man defence that largely kept Forest at arm’s length. Leeds restricted the hosts to fragments, half-openings, hopeful crosses. This was control, not chaos.

Forest’s new era starts with a whimper

Glasner made big calls. Ousmane Diomande, another £34m recruit, and Xaver Schlager were both left out of the starting XI, the new head coach opting for continuity over shock therapy. What he got instead was an underwhelming opener, short on fluency and even shorter on incision.

Forest’s best spell came just before the interval. Ola Aina swung in a cross from the right, Neco Williams attacked it and drew rare applause from his manager on the touchline. From the resulting phase, James McAtee recycled the ball into the box, where Milenkovic and Jair Cunha combined in the air to send a header against James Trafford’s post. It was as close as Forest came.

Trafford, otherwise, had a quiet evening. Leeds’s structure and discipline meant the goalkeeper was barely called into serious action, a testament to how effectively they smothered Forest’s attempts to build.

So the Glasner era begins not with a flourish but with a sting, delivered late and ruthlessly by Stach. The only consolation? There is no time to dwell. Leeds return here on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup.

Forest now know exactly what they are up against.