Nottingham Forest's Opening Night Disappointment Under Oliver Glasner

Oliver Glasner stepped out first. Not a player, not a club legend, but Nottingham Forest’s fifth head coach in less than a year, taking in the City Ground from the edge of his new technical area as another season flickered into life.

By the time he disappeared back down the tunnel, the script for his opening night had been ripped up.

With the game drifting towards a goalless stalemate, Anton Stach took control of the evening. A clumsy foul by Nikola Milenkovic on the edge of the box handed Leeds a late set piece and Stach, sensing his moment, whipped a vicious free-kick towards the near post.

Matz Sels read it, got something on it, but not enough. The Forest goalkeeper ended up tangled around his right upright as the ball squeezed in, the Leeds end behind him exploding in noise and limbs. A couple of minutes of normal time remained. Forest had no response.

Leeds seize the initiative

Leeds had carried the greater threat long before Stach’s winner. They controlled the tempo, pushed Forest back and, crucially, found more purpose in the final third.

Harry Wilson thought he had written his own debut story in the first half, racing on to a clever pass from Jayden Bogle and finishing, only to turn and see the assistant’s flag raised. The Welshman’s arrival is a marker of Leeds’s intent; his disallowed strike was a reminder of how quickly he can justify that faith.

The pattern did not change after the break. Leeds continued to probe, Forest continued to hang on. When Tarik Muharemovic, another debutant and a £34m signing from Sassuolo, rose to meet a cross and thunder a header towards the top corner, Sels produced one of the saves of the match, flinging out a strong left hand to claw it away.

It only delayed the inevitable.

Forest’s new era stalls

This was supposed to be the first step of something different under Glasner. Instead, Forest were rationed to scraps in a flat, underwhelming opener.

Glasner made bold calls. Ousmane Diomande, a £34m recruit from Sporting, and Xaver Schlager were both left out of the starting XI, the new head coach opting for continuity and caution over a full-throttle reboot. On the evidence of this, he has plenty of work to do.

There were flickers. As half-time approached, Neco Williams ghosted into the box to meet Ola Aina’s cross from the right, drawing rare applause from Glasner on the touchline. From the resulting phase, James McAtee recycled the ball and Milenkovic and Jair Cunha combined to crash a header against James Trafford’s post.

That was as close as Forest came. Trafford, making his own Leeds bow, had long spells with little to do.

At the other end, Muharemovic impressed, slotting in alongside Joe Rodon and Jaka Bijol in a three-man defence that kept Forest largely at arm’s length. Every time Leeds celebrated a block, a tackle, a clearance, Glasner could only puff out his cheeks and watch.

By full time, the picture told its own story. The away end, bathed in the evening sun, bounced and sang. Large swathes of the home sections had already emptied, the sense of a new dawn dulled by a late, stinging free-kick.

Forest do not have long to brood. Leeds return here on Tuesday in the Carabao Cup. For Glasner and his players, the question is simple: was this just a mis-step, or an early warning of a harder season than anyone at the City Ground had planned for?