Forest have been notoriously bad travellers since returning to the PL last year, but you wouldn’t have thought that was the case after a confident start in south London. Morgan Gibbs-White’s corner worked its way out to Harry Toffolo, whose fierce long-range effort was parried to safety by Sam Johnstone.
The Forest forward then did brilliantly to latch onto Murillo’s excellent long ball forward, but saw his superb first-time attempt cannon off the post and into Johnstone’s grateful grasp.
Roy Hodgson cut a frustrated figure in the dugout when Jeffrey Schlupp was forced off and added to his extensive injury list, as Jesurun Rak-Sakyi entered the fray.
Chances were few and far between for the hosts, but Jordan Ayew should have come closer to marking his 300th appearance in English football with a goal, after snatching an incoming ball into the box and firing his resulting strike over the bar.
Ayew’s cross-shot was then pushed by Matt Turner into the path of Rak-Sakyi, only for the latter’s effort to be blocked. Murillo almost broke the deadlock in what would have been a goal of the season contender, as the Brazilian weaved his way through the Eagles defence, but shot straight at Johnstone in first-half stoppage time.
Steve Cooper brought on Gonzalo Montiel in place of Serge Aurier after half-time, with the Ivorian appearing to have picked out a knock in the first half. The Sevilla loanee saw his shot blocked by Marc Guéhi early in the second half, while down the other end, Jean-Philippe Mateta slipped as he pulled the trigger to meet Odsonne Édouard’s ball back across the box.
Hodgson will have been encouraged by his side’s defending, and saw Joachim Andersen make a fine block to keep out Montiel’s speculative strike. Palace have been second-half scoring specialists this season, with ten of their 11 goals this campaign coming after half-time, but it needed something particularly outstanding to break down this resolute Forest defence.
That special moment nearly came from the Tricky Trees, when Johnstone was at full stretch to keep out a searching shot from Nicolás Domínguez. But neither side found that elusive first goal, as Hodgson’s 400th PL game ended in a stalemate.
Meanwhile, Cooper’s team have now only won one of their past 15 PL away matches, but there will be enough cause for optimism for Cooper as they bid to make that statistic more respectable.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Murillo (Nottingham Forest)
