Nottingham Forest have not scored at home all season, and Gibbs-White is fit for Friday’s trip to Ipswich
Forest are 19th with five points and every one of their league goals has come away from the City Ground. Ipswich, 10th, have won two of their three games at Portman Road.
Oct 23, 2026
Gary O’Neil has watched all of Nottingham Forest’s games this season, and he does not trust the table. Judge them like boxing matches, the Ipswich manager said before Friday night’s game at Portman Road, and “you definitely wouldn’t have them as the loser”.
The table is harsh on Forest all the same. They are 19th with five points, they have lost three in a row, and they have not scored in four league games at the City Ground: 1-0 defeats by Leeds, Coventry and Arsenal, and a 0-0 draw with Tottenham. All five of their league goals have come on the road, in a 2-2 draw at Liverpool, a 2-1 win at Aston Villa and a 3-1 defeat at Crystal Palace.
So an away game is not the worst thing that could happen to them this week.
Gibbs-White is fit
Morgan Gibbs-White missed Sunday’s 1-0 home defeat by Arsenal with a minor muscle problem, and Oliver Glasner says his captain is ready. “He’s ready, he trained the entire week, so there are no issues,” Glasner said. Nikola Milenkovic, who was on the bench against Arsenal, is fit to start, and only Igor Jesus and Nicolò Savona are missing.
Glasner was careful not to make Gibbs-White the whole answer. He pointed out that Forest had been competitive against Arsenal without him, and that they had lost games with him in the side as well. “He’s an important part, but he can’t win the game alone,” he said.
It has been a rough start to the job. Glasner took over in July after leaving Crystal Palace, and his return to Selhurst Park on 11 October ended in that 3-1 defeat, with Dan Ndoye’s early goal cancelled out by three from Palace.
Ipswich have won two of three at home
O’Neil is new too. He arrived from Strasbourg in June after Kieran McKenna stepped down, and Ipswich are 10th with nine points from three wins and four defeats. They have not drawn a league game yet. At Portman Road they beat Sunderland 2-1 on the opening day and Fulham 2-1 on 10 October, with a 2-0 defeat by Liverpool in between.
The worry is at the other end. Ipswich have conceded 15 in seven, including three in last Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at Manchester City. Sasa Lukic is out with a groin problem, and O’Neil hopes to have him back for the trip to Hull on 31 October. Abdul Fatawu has served his one-match ban for the red card at Everton and came off the bench at City, while Jack Taylor is a doubt with a knee problem.
O’Neil expects a direct Forest side built around Liam Delap. “He’s physical and they use him a lot because they’re a very, very direct team,” he said.
Kick-off time
Ipswich vs Nottingham Forest kicks off at 8pm UK time on Friday 23 October, which is 12:30am IST on Saturday. The last Premier League meeting at Portman Road, in March 2025, went 4-2 to Forest.
Ipswich’s home record says they should get something out of this. Forest’s away record says they will create chances. If Gibbs-White is as fit as Glasner says, I would not be surprised by Ipswich’s first draw of the season.