Grapevine

Awoniyi gets Forest backing after penalty miss

Aside from failing to find the back of the net in regulation time, the 27-year-old also missed his team’s last kick in the ensuing penalty shootout, which saw Newcastle triumphing 4-3.

In his analysis of the match with Nottingham Post, Santo was quite understanding, stating that he let Awoniyi play the entire fixture so as to gain match fitness.

He said, “It (Awoniyi’s performance) was good. In the end, it was clear he (Awoniyi) was lacking some energy, but he worked very hard until the end.

“He had two or three good chances to finish. We want to give Taiwo this opportunity to raise his levels of fitness because the talent is there.

“You cannot ignore the penalty moment for all of us, especially for the player involved in that situation. But we are here to support him, and we don’t have too much time for sorrow because we go again on Saturday.”