Nottingham Forest 4-1 Leicester City: FA Cup holders dumped OUT by East Midlands rivals, who add the Foxes to their Premier League scalps after beating Arsenal in round three

‘Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that,’ crowed the Forest fans. Not playing like this they won’t. And Leicester won’t be belting out that one about going to Wembley, either, this season.

Mind you, ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ could be getting an airing with many more results of this nature. If Leicester’s board dispensed with the man who delivered the greatest title win in history, they could certainly do for Brendan Rodgers. But more GOAT talk later.

First things first, and this was a quite brilliant display by Steve Cooper’s Nottingham Forest, who were thoroughly deserving of their eye-catching victory and the reward of a very winnable home tie against Huddersfield in the next round. 

Having dispensed with Arsenal and Leicester – the last two FA Cup winners – here, they will more than fancy their chances against another Championship club. And with good reason. Cooper has built a youthful, energetic side and Leicester could not cope with them. Forest went three goals up inside 32 minutes, and sealed the game just after the hour. Leicester’s sole response was a fortuitous goal, late in the first-half, caused by goalkeeper error. They had little to match Forest’s verve.

Djed Spence, on loan from Middlesbrough was outstanding, so too Brennan Johnson and both are surely destined for the Premier League next season – if not with Forest then perhaps with an already established club. Brentford were in for Johnson this January and Middlesbrough are believed to have turned down £10m for Spence, believing they could do better. This suggests they almost certainly could.

The sole sour note, and it was a significant one, came with the latest hooligan episode, a Leicester fan running on and throwing punches at Nottingham Forest’s players as they celebrated their third goal. No serious damage was done – most of these thugs couldn’t punch their way out of a wet paper bag – but that’s not the point. It is happening too often, and the police and courts need to act. Leicester, for their part, must implement a life ban. Players, having achieved the point of the game, shouldn’t be scared to rejoice in that. 

The fan was a bitter loser, so much is obvious. But there is a real edge between these teams now. They haven’t played in the same division since 2013-14 and haven’t been in the top division together this century, but events in 2015-16 changed their relationship forever. Leicester won the league, aka The Greatest Achievement In English Football History. And that put noses out of joint further north in the east Midlands.

Elsewhere, not so much. Manchester United supporters may advance the case of the treble winners, followers of Arsenal salute the Invincibles, but the rest, the neutrals, were happy to let Leicester have the crown. Not in Nottingham, though. In Nottingham they took Leicester’s GOAT award as a disrespectful slur, against Brian Clough and a Forest team that won promotion, won the title, then won the European Cup – twice. And so the back-and-forth in this game began. ‘4-1 to the famous team,’ they mocked near the end. ‘Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that,’ remains the favourite, though. And, no, they probably won’t. Then again, supporters of the self-styled elite used to taunt Leicester, and clubs of similar size, with that same refrain, but ‘England’ inserted where ‘Europe’ now resides. Until they shoved it straight back down their throats.

So, who knows the future? The present should be enough for Forest now, and certainly that first-half. Only a horrid mistake by goalkeeper Brice Samba gave Leicester a toehold in the tie at all. They should have gone in 3-0 down, maybe more. Across a ten minute spell, Forest were brilliant, Leicester utterly woeful, and the game turned.

Leicester made an ominous start – Kelechi Iheanacho and Ademola Lookman coming close, Lookman just unable to get on the end of a Harvey Barnes cross at the far post – but Forest got back into the game with a shot from Keinan Davis that struck the bar after 20 minutes. What followed next was hard to explain. Threatened, Leicester capitulated. They have had defensive problems this season and it is easy to see why watching this. They were a shambles. As impressive as Forest were, Leicester should not have fallen apart so dramatically. 

The first goal came after some excellent work down the right by Spence. He played the ball back to Johnson whose excellent deep cross picked out Davis at the far post. He was all over his man Daniel Amartey, but like a striker should be, not in a nefarious way, and headed the ball back across goal.

Philip Zinckernagel sounds like he should be competing in Beijing this month and he entered the box as if coming off a luge chute, quicker than those around him, scuffing the loose ball off a shin and into the net. The City Ground erupted. This is a fine old club, with a proud history and on occasions like this it shows.

Indeed, the noise had not subsided when Forest scored again. Just 24 seconds separated goals one and two, and it was Amartey at fault again. He played a back pass from a wide position which fell short of goalkeeper Danny Ward, who was also slow to spot the danger.

Brennan wasn’t and, cool as you like, sized up the percentages and stuck the ball through Ward’s legs into the net. Forest fans still celebrating the first had to dig deep into their lungs again. They more than met the challenge. 

Leicester were now reeling and the third, eight minutes later, confirmed it. James Garner took a good corner from the right, but Leicester’s utter failure to deal with it allowed captain Joe Worrall to burrow in with a diving header that pitched up and over flailing arms and legs protecting the goal.

Then, as Forest rightly celebrated, a thug ran from Leicester’s end and started throwing wild punches, appearing to connect with Davis, before being wrestled to the ground by stewards. Maybe they should have let Davis’ team-mates deal with him, before he was carried away; hopefully not to be seen at a football ground again.

That the tie was not done by half-time was only the work of Forest goalkeeper Samba, whose inexplicable decision to hare from his goal to clear an aimless long ball – missing his target and allowing Iheanacho to finish into an empty net – threw Leicester a lifeline they did not deserve. In the 61st minute, Spence snatched it back.

He began a run on the right, laid the ball inside to Zinckernagel, got the return and shot low past Ward. The home crowd began cries of Ole, as their players enjoyed a spell of possession. All that time in Europe, you can’t help but pick up a little of the lingo.

Re-live Sportsmail’s live coverage of Nottingham Forest’s fourth-round FA Cup win over holders Leicester City brought to you by ISABEL BALDWIN.