REDS GET BACK TO WINNING WAYS AT THE CITY GROUND

THIS was it. This was the moment Nottingham Forest had been waiting for.

- By SARAH CLAPSON

Sean Dyche insisted afterwards it was “only one step” He is right, it is just one (albeit significant) step in the right direction. But it felt like more than that.

After all the drama and disappointment, the boos and the gloom, this was a return to pure joy. The kind of night to leave those watching on giddy and grinning from ear to ear as they made their way home.

“Forest are back” echoed around the City Ground as Porto were beaten 2-0. It carried extra meaning this time, too. The place was alive again.

A first win since the opening day of the season. A first win in Europe for almost 30 years. And a first win for the new head coach, of course - at the first time of asking, too.

There was a lot to like about Thursday night's Europa League triumph. It was the very antithesis of the miserable few weeks that predated it.

Back to winning ways

Almost from the start, it was as though a weight had been lifted Trentside. Morgan Gibbs-White summed it up best when he said he could “finally breathe” again.

It has been a chaotic start to the campaign for the Reds. After the failed Ange Postecoglou experiment, Dyche’s appointment is a return to something akin to what worked so well last term.

There was a buzz and an energy about the ground pre-match. And although there is still plenty for the new boss to work on, he now has a solid base from which to build.

Two penalties decided the game but Forest played some nice stuff in between. Dyche has had a big impact in a small space of time.

He admitted afterwards, he hadn’t even had chance to think about what would happen in the event of a spot-kick. Gibbs-White hammered in the first one, then handed the ball to Igor Jesus for the second.

“T'm a team player” Gibbs-White said afterwards. “Igor has been in good form in the Europa League recently, so I thought it was only right to give him that one. I knew he was going to put it away.”