Nottingham Forest: Europa League hopes balanced after costly 55 seconds in Braga

Dyche made seven changes to the squad that tied last Saturday with Premier League leaders Arsenal, which ended in a goalless draw. The last time he changed the team so radically was at Wrexham in the FA Cup.

After crashing out of the competition that night, the Forest manager was highly critical of the players who came into the squad but was more forgiving on this occasion.

He added: “There is an effort, but the latest developments… we want more of that.”

“We are in a strange situation where I have to protect some players. We know that the Premier League is very important but we wanted to do well in this competition and we are still doing that.”

“It’s a fine line, it’s a juggling act. On the one hand, you want to protect some players and give everyone a chance.”

Yates felt that Forest were a bit tough on the loss and that the visitors “dominated for the better part of the game”.

“We are disappointed because I think we did enough to win the game,” he told TNT Sports.

“We missed an opportunity. It doesn’t mean we were bad but we can definitely do better. We have to move on quickly.”

Former Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott saw it a little differently and highlighted the added blow of Elliot Anderson’s late red card.

“The perfect way to sum it up is chaos,” he told TNT Sports. “Collectively it wasn’t good enough.

“To go through it and lose someone of Anderson’s stature when you have a huge game next week is devastating.

“You often look at games and wonder if there are any positives. I don’t think there were any tonight.

“A terrible night, a terrible performance on what should have been a fantastic evening.”

Anderson will miss the final group game next week, and Forest are hoping the suspension will not be extended to include a potential play-off match in February.

These extra games could pose a problem for Forest at such a busy stage of the season as they chase Premier League survival – and playing them without their star midfielder would stretch the team’s stretch even further.

Ultimately, Forrest will feel that this situation could have been avoided.

“You might come out with a draw, but you shouldn’t really lose that game,” Dyke said.

But in “One Minute of Madness,” they lost track of what they had done.