'I feel like I can finally breathe!' - Morgan Gibbs-White delighted with Nottingham Forest's start under Sean Dyche after ending Ange Postecoglou nightmare

Forest headed into that contest ready to open another new era on Trentside under their third permanent boss of the 2025-26 campaign. Nuno Espirito Santo, who guided them into Europe last season, was relieved of his duties in early September. Reins were then passed to former Tottenham manager Postecoglou.

The Australian tactician lasted just 39 days in the City Ground dugout, with a run of eight winless matches seeing him make the wrong kind of history. A 3-0 defeat to Chelsea in the Premier League proved to be the final straw, with Reds owner Evangelos Marinakis taking decisive action once again.

Former Forest youth team player Dyche, who once worked under the legendary Brian Clough, is now back in familiar surroundings - bringing former fan favourites Ian Woan and Steve Stone with him. They got off to the perfect start against Porto in front of a raucous home support that have a cause to get behind again.

Fans are buying into the Dyche project, with the players also very much on board. Gibbs-White admitted as much when - having netted the first goal under Forest’s new boss - he told TNT Sports: "I feel like I can finally breathe. It's been a difficult couple of months here with all the changes that have happened, the bad performances. So just happy to get our first win in nine games and to do it here at the City Ground and the European nights, it's an incredible feeling and there's no one here that deserves it more than the stadium, the fans. So we're delighted to get three points on the table and those three points are for the fans for sticking by us."

Gibbs-White, who started as captain for Forest against Porto, added on the impact that Dyche has made across a few days in charge - with the Reds going back to basics: "That was the first thing the gaffer came in and said, ‘last season you had a real identity, a real structure to how you play’ and he wants to bring that in, and he also wants to build on top of that, and I think we showed that tonight. We were solid, hard to break down and when we went forward we could have been a bit more clinical, a bit better, but we take the three points and we move on.

"It's only been one game and we've only had a few training sessions, but you can feel the morale within the stadium, you can feel the morale within the group - it feels a lot higher, a lot more energetic. It feels a lot more positive and that's the way it needs to be and it needs to stay like that for us to continue and try to push forward. That's credit to the manager."

Postecoglou holds the unwanted honour of being the shortest-serving permanent manager in Premier League history - with Sam Allardyce’s 30-day reign at Leeds in 2023 seeing him fill an interim role at Elland Road.

Dyche is looking to shake Forest from what has been a nightmare start to the new season, with the early signs being that he is the man to get the Reds back on track - with loyal supporters on side.

Dyche said of calling the shots for the first time: "When you are on the side you don't hear every word, you hear a noise and you know if it's a positive noise or a negative noise. I'm not here to judge or question anything, just deliver what I can to the job. It's nice when they support you from the off, winning helps.

"These fans are pretty fair, win, lose or draw if they see a team out there wearing the shirt with pride and I think they'll accept that. To get it off with a good performance and a win is very pleasing for them. If they can accept me and my staff and what's going on that's got to be a bonus. Hopefully it will fast track the feeling around the ground."

Dyche’s first Premier League game as Forest boss will see a trip to Bournemouth taken in on Sunday, with the Reds currently sat inside the relegation zone and in need of a spark to make them upwardly mobile once more.