Nottingham Forest U23 ratings vs Stoke: Ten-man Reds beaten in Premier League 2 play-off clash

Nottingham Forest suffered a 2-0 play-off semi-final defeat to Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium to end their Under-23s campaign.

It seemed almost inevitable that the young Potters would win after Forest attacking midfielder Ateef Konate was shown a straight red card on 14 minutes for lashing out at Jack Griffiths. The Potters midfielder received a yellow card for his initial trip on the Forest man.

George Shelvey produced arguably the performance of his career as he produced several top class saves to keep out efforts from Will Goodwin, D’Margio Wright-Phillips and Emre Tezgel either side of half-time. But the Forest shot-stopper could do nothing to stop Griffiths from heading into the back of the net on 75 minutes after a pin-point cross from Edward Jones.

The away side sent players bombing forwards as the game went into stoppage time and Goodwin eventually grabbed the goal his performance deserved as he took advantage of the Forest overload by slotting past Shelvey when one-on-one.

This is how Matt Lee rated the Forest players’ performance against Stoke City…

Two really good saves to keep the hosts out in the first-half. Produced even more strong saves to keep Forest in the game after the break, but was beaten by Griffiths' header midway through second half.

Had a couple of chances to push forward as an overlapping full-back, but struggled to produce anything clear-cut.

Had a good attacking chance midway through first half when he drove forwards but opted to lay the ball to Swan. Next time needs to show selfishness to strike himself.

Had one shaky moment early in first half when he shanked a clearance into his own box, but an otherwise steady performance.

Stood firm in defence alongside Fernandes and Harbottle