Player Nottingham Forest got rid of in 2023 makes two howlers in league debut for new club
Yesterday at 01:00 PM
Nottingham Forest have had some issues with goalkeepers over the years and have yet to properly replace Brice Samba.
Matz Sels was recently hailed by Alan Shearer but he’s certainly not in the same bracket as the France international who left Forest in 2022.
Samba is currently among the best in Europe and Forest have had a number of stoppers since then.
Dean Henderson, Wayne Hennessey, Keylor Navas, Matt Turrner and Odysseas Vlachodimos all played for the club before Sels came along.
Another player who was in the squad during the first season back in the Premier League was homegrown stopper Jordan Smith.
He made 54 appearances for the club but was always considered the third-choice stopper during the 2022/23 campaign.
After leaving Forest, he has been trying to carve out a career for himself somewhere and last night, he was handed the chance to make a rare outing between the sticks.
Jordan Smith makes two howlers during Premiership debut for Hibernian
This won’t have been what Smith was dreaming of when the time come for him to play for Hibernian in a Premiership game.
When the team was announced for last night’s game against Aberdeen, the surprise call came between the posts with Smith replacing Josef Bursik.
Head coach David Gray might be regretting the decision as Smith made two almighty cock-ups during the 3-3 draw.
His first was one that Forest fans saw all too often when Smith kept goal for the Reds.
He came to punch clear from a corner, got it horribly wrong and seconds later it was nestling into the back of his net.
His next howler came from an effort that in fairness was well struck but it was straight at Smith.
The former Forest man showed serious signs of ring rust and instead of parrying the ball over, he helped it on its way into the net.
What Steve Cooper said about Jordan Smith
Say what you want about Smith the goalkeeper but as a person, the South Normanton-born player is a model professional.
For years, he didn’t play any first-team football at Forest but he always conducted himself positively.
This was echoed by Steve Cooper who said about Smith: “Jordan has been an incredible servant to Nottingham Forest.
“During my time working with him, he has shown excellent commitment to doing his best for the good of the football club.”
Smith goes down as one of many players to have progressed through the club’s academy and he did live a dream by making so many Forest appearances.
Last night’s errors show why he’s been forced to move to Scotland to get a club and he will now face an anxious wait to see if he will play against at the weekend.
