A freak Matt Phillips goal proved the match-winner for West Bromwich Albion as they came from behind to beat Nottingham Forest in Slaven Bilic’s first game in charge.
Phillips whipped a mishit cross from the touchline over the head of Forest debutant Aro Muric, who appeared to misjudge the flight of the ball.
In a game of goalkeeping errors, Forest led when Matty Cash beat visiting keeper Sam Johnstone at his near post with a low, drilled strike from 20 yards.
Albion winger Kyle Edwards levelled with a shot that slipped through the grasp of on-loan Manchester City man Muric before Phillips’ fluke completed the first-half comeback.
The second half was not as incident-packed, with midfielder Alfa Semedo lashing over and Michael Dawson’s effort blocked as Sabri Lamouchi’s side looked for a leveller on his managerial bow in England.
It was the wayward strike from former QPR and Blackpool winger Phillips that will live longest in the memory, with Muric appearing to pull his hand away from the ball thinking it was floating over his bar.
Forest had started promisingly, deservedly going ahead after some fine link-up play between Cash and Albert Adomah, the former controlling on his chest before finding the net.
Edwards – on only his seventh league start for the Baggies – turned makeshift right-back Cash inside out before shooting across Muric to level, while England Under-19 defender Nathan Ferguson was arguably the most impressive of five debutants for ex-West Ham boss Bilic’s side.
It is the first time Forest have lost an opening-day league match at the City Ground since 1983, with this season the ninth in succession that they have started with a different manager.
For West Brom, their recovery mirrors their antics of last season, where only promoted Aston Villa (29) won more points from losing positions than their 27.
Nottingham Forest manager Sabri Lamouchi:
“We need to learn from our mistakes. Today we gave them two goals and that is not easy, to come back from that.
“When you start in the right way, as we did today, with the goal from Matty, you cannot allow the opponent to come back into the game in the manner that we did.
“The second goal can happen, many goalkeepers would have conceded that goal. The first one was of the type that can be avoided.
“But Aro is a young keeper and he has a lot of quality. He will help us a lot this season. He needs to learn from this.”
West Bromwich Albion boss Slaven Bilic:
“I am very pleased, of course. You only need to look around at the crowd and the stadium – this is Premier League. It was like a Premier League game.
“But what I was not happy with, with the quality we have and the team we have, was something else. You do not always have to score goals. But there were situations where we should have created chances and we did not.
“I felt that we were happy to be winning 2-1 – and 2-1 can mean nothing. I want us to be confident, to have the composure and not to panic. That is the only part of the game – and it is a major part of the game – that I was not happy with.
“We should have created five good chances in the second half. We were one pass, one bit of confidence or one decision short in key moments.”
