There was a moment towards the end here, after Tottenham had supplied yet further evidence of their inadequacies for this league and this stadium and their supporters, when the corner filled by Nottingham Forest fans burst into song.
It was catchy and got to the heart of a point that had been lost on no one: ‘Morgan Gibbs-White, he stayed because you’re s***e.’
If anyone from Spurs had the appetite to mount a counter-argument, then this was not the day for it. Not the season, either.
They are dismal. They are gutless. They have followed years of institutional cowardice with months of reaping what they have sown through a series of turgid transfer windows, and right now, as the campaign enters its championship rounds, they are close to entering the Championship itself.
For a while that has seemed unthinkable. Possible but improbable. Too big. But they aren’t. They are small players, run by weak men, instructed by a questionable manager and this was the sort of match that proved all of the above.
The sort of match that could not be lost and the sort of match that they lost by three to a side that has not scored more than two in a league game since December. That was against Tottenham, too, by the way.
And so here they are, left to reflect on how Forest gave themselves a massive chance of survival after spending the majority of the first half on the back foot, only for Vitor Pereira to benefit from a trip to Dr Tottenham. For the goals scored by Igor Jesus, Gibbs-White and Taiwo Awoniyi we can say the same thing about each – there was no marking. No busted guts. No chase. No clue.
That can be pinned on the individuals. And it can be pinned on Igor Tudor. But also on the Lewis family and the boardroom cronies who ran out of excuses the minute Daniel Levy left the club. The fact it was Gibbs-White who killed this game was poignant – Spurs had effectively signed him in the summer but just wouldn’t throw in the extra few quid to make it certain and so that chant really took hold.
‘He stayed because you’re s***e.’ How it echoed.
Spurs fans? They mostly stayed beyond that point and can take no blame for the mood here. It was immense, from the moment a pre-match protest was abandoned in favour of blue and white smoke bombs and a message of support. They created a superb atmosphere.
But noise is of no use to timid players and a manager who has done so little to impress in his short tenure.
As ever, Tudor’s decisions were vulnerable to scrutiny, namely by the extent of surgery he performed on the starting XI responsible for Tottenham’s best performance in months in the second leg against Atletico Madrid. A victory in a lost cause, sure, but if something works, why fiddle with it?
In this case, that meant three changes, with Kevin Danso, Richarlison and Dominic Solanke all brought in, and Xavi Simons dropped to the bench after a rare performance in which he had impressed.
But the logic was at least sound – Richarlison and Solanke posed a greater threat in the tweaked shape of a 4-4-2 and Simons has repeatedly struggled with the extra intensity of the Premier League. And make no mistake, this was an intense game. Frantic even.
To give Michael Oliver his due, he allowed it to be that way. Another referee might have given three bookings in the first half, especially when Archie Gray crunched Ibrahim Sangare, but Oliver let it run. He gave violence a chance.
Between the bursts of blood and thunder, Tottenham shaded it. Despite having Micky van de Ven assigned to the unfamiliar duties of a left back, Forest struggled to find ways to exploit it, too often pinned back by Spurs attacks.
Gray, excellent in midweek, was strong again here, creating the first real opening with a 50-yard dart from right to left, pitching Mathys Tel against Ola Aina. Tel skinned the full back and had his shot blocked. Tone set.
Across the half, Richarlison would go on to head wide, Jesus glanced against his own bar, and Tel had further success in his duel with Aina. But they weren’t making it count. Over and again, we have made that observation, and over and again we have seen Spurs pay for their deficiencies.
So it came to pass here. Forest had posed only moderate threats, and nothing to stress Guglielmo Vicario and his hernia pain, but with 45 played that changed on both fronts. First, Igor forced Vicario into nudging over the bar and from the subsequent Williams’ delivery, Tudor was failed by poor marking, with Jesus allowed a free header. The bloke didn’t even need to jump for it.
Naturally, we might ask why none of the grappling was penalised, but it wasn’t isolated to any one side. They fouled each other and the easiest call from Oliver was evidently to punish none of it. Clearly, it’s an area of the game that officials need to address.
As for Tottenham, their fix is infinitely more complicated. Tel hit the bar as they chased a quick retaliation, before Tudor took matters into his own hands at the break, hooking both Van de Ven and Djed Spence in the hope that new full-backs might be the answer. It wasn’t.
The defensive weaknesses continued into the second half, signalled when Williams was gifted a free header, saved well by Vicario, before the killer strike of Forest’s second goal.
Callum Hudson-Odoi made it with an easy skip around Pedro Porro and Tel permitted the space for Gibbs-White by paying no attention to his run. The strike was decent but Vicario should have saved it – the third strike of three in the space of a single goal.
By the close, it didn’t matter if it was a deficit of two or three, but a third did come and again the marking was pathetic. This time it was Kevin Danso ball-watching as Williams swung in the cross and Awoniyi volleyed the finish.
Forest are fighting to the end. Forest have given themselves a solid chance. Tottenham can say neither of those things.