Nuno Espirito Santo, Nottingham Forest manager, believes it is critical to rally behind Taiwo Awoniyi following his penalty miss against Newcastle United on Wednesday.
The Reds lost 4-3 on penalties to Newcastle United in their Carabao Cup match. After 90 minutes, the two teams were deadlocked at 1-1.
Awoniyi was in action throughout the closely contested match.
The Nigeria international suffered from injuries last season and did not play much in preseason due to fitness concerns.
The match against Newcastle United was his first start of the season.
Santo said he was glad Awoniyi got more game time to improve his fitness, but the penalty miss will shake his confidence.
“It was good.” In the end, it was evident that he was tired, but he worked extremely hard to the end,” he noted after the game.
“He had two or three decent opportunities to finish. We want to offer Taiwo the opportunity to improve his fitness since he has the talent.
“You cannot disregard the (penalty) moment for any of us, particularly the player involved in that situation. But we are here to support him, and we don’t have much time to be sad because we leave again on Saturday.”