It was hard to see how Thursday night could have gone much worse for Nottingham Forest.

As they fell to a dour defeat in Braga, they completed the unholy trinity of scoring an own goal, missing a penalty and receiving a red card.

Having begun the evening with hopes of pushing on for a top-eight finish in the Europa League - and securing automatic qualification for the last 16 - Sean Dyche's side head home with those hopes all-but dashed.

Even victory over Ferencvaros in the final round of league phase games is unlikely to be enough to spare them a two-legged play-off to reach the last 16.

While the result was bad, the fact the travelling supporters booed their side off at both half-time and full-time tells you the performance was just as poor.

The outcome at least could all have been so different had Morgan Gibbs-White managed to convert a 53rd-minute penalty.

But the midfielder's effort was saved - and 55 seconds later, Braga were in front through a Ryan Yates own goal.

"One minute of madness in a game that we never looked in trouble," Dyche told TNT Sports.

"We miss a penalty - that can happen. The reaction in the next minute or so... we lose the game to a poor goal.

"They get a lift and the crowd go mad, we knock off a bit, and an unfortunate situation for Yatesy. Very frustrated."

That Braga managed to win the match without having a single shot on target - becoming only the second team in Europa League history to do so - will only add to Forest's frustration.

But while Braga, who did hit the post at 1-0, might not have offered a huge amount going forward, Forest were little better for much of the game.

'Perfect way to sum it up is a mess'

Dyche had made seven changes from Saturday's 0-0 Premier League draw against leaders Arsenal. The last time he altered the side so drastically was at Wrexham in the FA Cup.

After exiting the competition that night, the Forest boss was highly critical of the players who had come into the team but he more forgiving on this occasion.

"There's effort there but the cutting edge... we want more of that," he added.

"We are in a weird situation where I have to protect certain players. We know the Premier League is massively important but we wanted to do well in this competition and we still do.

"It's a fine line, it's a juggling act. On one hand you want to protect some players and give everyone a chance."

Yates felt that Forest were slightly hard done by to lose and that the visitors "controlled the most part of the game".

"We are frustrated because I think we did enough to win the game," he told TNT Sports.

"We've missed an opportunity. Not that we were terrible but we can definitely do better. We have to move on quickly."

Former Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott saw it slightly differently and highlighted the added blow of Elliot Anderson's late sending off.

"The perfect way to sum it up is a mess," he told TNT Sports. "Collectively it wasn't good enough.

"To top it off and lose someone of the stature of Anderson when you have a massive game next week is devastating.

"You often look at games and wonder if there are any positives. I don't think there are any tonight.

"A terrible night, terrible performance on what should have been a marvellous evening."

Anderson will miss next week's final group game and Forest will hope the ban is not extended to include the likely play-off in February.

Those extra games could be a problem for Forest at such a busy stage of the season as they chase Premier League survival - and going into them without their star midfielder would stretch the squad even further.

Ultimately, Forest will feel it is a situation they could have avoided.

"You might come away with a draw, but you shouldn't really lose that game," Dyche said.

But in "one minute of madness", lose it they did. (BBC)

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