DON'T LOOK BACK AT CLANGER

Martinez pays price for costly fumble

- NEIL MOXLEY

FOOTBALL has a funny way of bringing you down to earth.

Just ask Emi Martinez. What a week it has been for him.

Picking up the Lev Yashin award at the Ballon d'Or ceremony must have seemed like a crowing glory.

Validation that he was top of the goalkeeping tree. It took just over three-quarters of an hour for him to fall off it at Nottingham Forest.

By that time, Unai Emery's men were deservedly trailing to Ola Aina's fifth-minute goal.

But then, moments after the restart, Orel Mangala took aim from 25 yards - the midfielder struck the ball cleanly enough but it should have been a routine stop for the big Argentine, diving to his right.

It was not a save that should have been made with his left hand. However, it was. The ball ballooned upwards and bounced over the goalline.

Martinez's desperate attempts to claw the ball back from the brink only added to his misery as Steve Cooper's men, like dogs with a bone, refused to go the same way as they had against Luton last week and surrendered a two-goal lead.