Ange Postecoglou Suffers Nottingham Forest Shock Defeat As Ex-Celtic Staffer Beats Old Boss

Ange Postecoglou suffered a disappointing defeat last night as Nottingham Forest were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Swansea City.

Big Ange was handed the reins at Forest earlier this month to replace Nuno Espirito Santo at the City Ground.

It was an appointment which excited supporters, seemingly even those punters who got emotional over Nuno’s sacking a short time ago.

Things, though, have not started too well for Postecoglou whose side were convincingly beaten by Arsenal at the Emirates in his first match in charge of the club. Martin Zubimendi hit a double while summer signing Viktor Gyokeres bagged himself another goal to add to his tally.

But last night was a more frustrating evening for the Australian head coach who was left scratching his head at how his team chucked away a two goal lead to lose 3-2 to EFL Championship opposition.

Summer Forest signing from Botafogo in Brazil’s Serie A, Igor Jesus opened the scoring for his new club before he bagged the second of his brace to silence the Swansea.com Stadium.

Darren O’Dea and Swansea City beat Ange Postecoglou’s Nottingham Forest

However things turned sour for Ange, Jesus and co. after the restart.

Cameron Burgess scored shortly after the hour mark to haul his side back into the tie but it looked as if that would only be a consolation goal with Forest desperately close to seeing out the match for Postecoglou’s first win.

That certainly was not to be when striker Zan Vipotnik – who almost left the club in the summer – popped up with what looked to be the most dramatic goal three minutes into injury time to equalise.

It was a real shot in the arm for the hosts who, incredibly, would be sent into raptures when Burgess stepped up again and won the contest a whopping SEVEN minutes into stoppage time to leave Postecoglou’s jaw on the floor.

Clearly the Swans’ manager, Alan Sheehan, had made some big calls in his starting XI before the game but his substitutions also worked wonders with Vipotnik in particular showing up.

What role O’Dea worked at under Postecoglou at Celtic

But Sheehan had help from his backroom staff and there is one member of that staff in particular who knows Postecoglou well having worked with him at Celtic.

Assistant Swans boss Darren O’Dea works closely with Sheehan and on the training pitch at the club but at the Hoops that was not always the case.

The retired Irish central defender admitted upon leaving Parkhead that it was his desire to get back to the training field to coach and that seems to have paid off with Burgess, a centre-half himself, finding the net twice.

O’Dea was Celtic’s loans manager and pathway chief during Postecoglou’s time in Glasgow but now he and his boss, Sheehan, have got the better of the Aussie.