Nottingham Forest v Norwich City: everything you need to know

The Canaries will be looking to make it nine wins in a row but know Forest will be a tough nut to crack under the management of former City boss Chris Hughton.

Team news

Adam Idah will miss out due to a hernia, which is expected to need surgery, but the Championship leaders have no fresh injury concerns.

Kenny McLean (back), Todd Cantwell (Achilles) and Emi Buendia (muscle soreness) were struggling slightly towards the end of the win at Hillsborough and although Farke said Lukas Rupp also had a slight neck complaint, he is not expecting any fresh injury problems.

Nottingham Forest will be without Joe Lolley due to a hamstring injury whilst defender Joe Worrall is also set for a spell on the sidelines, due to a cracked rib, and could be out until after the upcoming international break.

Midfielder Fouad Bachirou (hamstring) remains unavailable, too, although centre-back Scott McKenna and Lewis Grabban did make their comebacks in the 1-1 draw against Reading.

Summer signing Harry Arter, however, suffered a slight setback earlier this week when he featured for the Under-23s.

Farke on Forest

“When you judge their games, they either finish with a clean sheet or just concede one goal. It’s so difficult to create chances against a Chris Hughton side and even to speak about scoring goals against them.

“They are unbelievably competitive, well-structured and organised. You can see the handwriting of Chris. When this comes together, quality players and a coach who is able to give them a good structure and solidity against the ball, it is likely that the results will come.

“This is the reason why I think they are safe and don’t need to worry about a relegation battle any more, it’s more like they can already build on it.

“There is a gap to the play-off ranks already and actually with these types of players and the coach, they would have the opportunity to fight for this but this season it is perhaps a bit too much after a difficult start.

“But definitely during the next season I think they will be greedy to build on this and during the next games work on this momentum.”

Hughton on City

“I think we were unfortunate not to get anything in the away game at Norwich, but they have certainly kicked on.

“We have watched a lot of them ahead of playing them and they are finding ways of getting results, they are a team that if they go behind you know they have goals in them.

“They are where they are and not by coincidence, they are well clear at the moment not by coincidence and they are the best team.

“They have good players and their methods are about possession, so the more possession they have the bigger threat they are.

“They have different ways of getting goals and with those top teams up there, generally they are going to be strong. If you look at Swansea they can score goals but are strong at the back and don’t concede many, as with Watford, but with Brentford and Norwich they have number nines who are scoring a lot of goals and there is certainly not a weak area that they have at the moment.

Last time they met

Norwich City 2 Nottingham Forest 1

City had to grind this one out in December – Jacob Sorensen gave the Canaries the lead just before the break but the home side were pegged back by substitute Anthony Knockaert’s equaliser. Norwich rallied and found a winner though as Emi Buendia’s effort deflected in off Nottingham Forest captain Joe Worrall.

Referee

Leigh Doughty – this will be the first time he has taken change of a Norwich City game.

How can I watch?

Tonight’s match is free to watch for any Norwich City season ticket holder on iFollow.

Non-season ticket holders are also able to buy a £10 match pass whilst the match is also being shown live on the Sky Sports Red Button.

You can also follow all the action live on our matchday blog at pinkun.com

Prediction

Nottingham Forest 0 Norwich City 1. Likely to be a tight, tense affair with one goal settling it – don't back against the GOAT getting it.