3 Nottingham Forest weakness ahead of tonight’s clash at the Racecourse that will boost hopes of Wrexham’s FA Cup win among fans.
Starting today, “the magic of the FA Cup” will remain a commonplace phrase across English football for the next three days. The FA Cup 3rd round action is upon us, where Wrexham will lock horns with Nottingham Forest at the Racecourse ground in a bid to extend their Cup journey beyond tonight.
Fun fact, this is the first time Phil Parkinson’s men play hosts in 2026 and what better way to kick start the New Year’s home form with a win than this? That too, in a tricky Cup contest against a Premier League side literally called as the “Tricky Trees” among Nottingham Forest fans.
There are merely hours before the kickoff, and presently the balance seems 50-50 between Wrexham and Nottingham Forest. Largely, it’s due to the Red Dragons retaining their winning streak every week and the visitors having a hard time finding their footing in the top-flight.
Still, Forest have the Premier League tag which is always considered far superior than any in-form Championship club out there. As a result, Wrexham have their work cut out pre-game but it doesn’t necessarily have to be tough always.
3 Nottingham Forest weakness ahead of FA Cup clash
There as many as 3 weakness plaguing this Nottingham Forest squad which the hosts need to exploit throughout the night to boost hopes for an FA Cup win.
Nottingham Forest injuries
It’s well known how much Wrexham’s squad has struggled for fitness in the past fifteen days but Nottingham Forest aren’t much better off in this area. Forest have their previous season’s goal machine Chris Wood unavailable through an injured knee.
2025 summer signing Dan Ndoye is also likely to sit out the trip to Racecourse, and so can be club captain Ryan Yates status at Wrexham. These 3 fall under Nottingham Forest’s undroppables category when fit, meaning the visitors are direly missing their best lineup’s core.
Wrexham are doing comparatively better than Forest with many key players like Kieffer Moore soon to wear the Reds shirt in action.
Nottingham Forest’s struggling attack in 2025/26 season
As seen above, Wood and Ndoye’s significant absences must have weakened Nottingham Forest’s attacking output. Still, they had much playmaking creativity and talent up top without those two, but 21 league goals in 21 Premier League matchdays is poor finishing, hands down.
Wrexham are no defensive kings in the Championship, but the fanbase must stay assured of Dominic Hyam and Max Cleworth’s improved showings day by day. They held their own while battling Derby County’s attackers for large parts of the game.
Hence, it would be quite upsetting should they let in 3 goals tonight in their backyard itself.
Nottingham Forest’s Carabao Cup upset
This one is actually the most interesting for Wrexham, out of the 3. Whenever a relatively minnow side wishes to knock down a giant in Cup competitions, their best shot to pulling upsets often lie in finding inspirations from other shocking results their stronger counterparts have suffered.
In this 2025/26 season itself, Nottingham Forest have been sent packing from the Carabao Cup way earlier than they should. There wasn’t any Premier League opposition either, it was Wrexham’s Welsh neighbours Swansea City who sneaked a last-minute 3-2 comeback win to catch Forest off guard.
The Swans repeated that late-night goals show in front of the Red Dragons as well, just last month. But credit to them, they have left a blueprint for Phil Parkinson’s men to find FA Cup success rivaling Forest.
How better will Wrexham utilize Nottingham Forest’s weaknesses to their cause, remains to be seen.
