Liam Delap fired a blank on his return to Ipswich with Nottingham Forest forced to settle for a 1-1 draw despite a dominant display at Portman Road.

Delap’s 12-goal haul for Ipswich during the 2024-25 campaign earned a big-money move to Chelsea, but he returned to his old club with Forest on Friday with only two Premier League strikes to his name since he departed the Suffolk club.

Any hope of rediscovering that past form failed to materialise and Delap sent over a gilt-edged chance with 16 minutes left to ensure Forest remain with a haul of only one league victory from eight fixtures under Oliver Glasner.

Glasner will wonder how after Neco Williams’ deservedly put the visitors in front in the 13th minute before Nikola Milenkovic gifted Gary O’Neil’s side an equaliser with a poor back pass, which allowed Julio Enciso to level after 41 minutes.

Forest looked the more likely to grab a second-half winner and were frustrated that Issa Diop avoided a red card for a 47th-minute lunge on James McAtee, but Glasner in the end had to settle for a point.

Glasner stuck with Delap despite his costly misses at Crystal Palace and almost watched the away side score in the sixth minute.

Jair Cunha went close before Delap lashed well wide after good play by fit-again Morgan Gibbs-White.

While Forest started the day second from bottom, the visitors regularly belied their lowly position and broke the deadlock in classic Glasner fashion.

Delap initially held up well versus Diop, then Gibbs-White beat Dara O’Shea to the ball and played in Daniel Munoz, who picked out fellow wing-back Williams to send a right-footed volley past Christian Walton.

It was trademark Glasner and while Enciso curled a free kick over for Ipswich soon after, Forest remained dominant with Gibbs-White off target before only Leif Davis’ excellent clearance on the line denied the England midfielder.

However, with four minutes of the first half left, Forest and specifically Milenkovic gifted Ipswich a leveller.

O’Shea’s long ball was brought down by Milenkovic but his pass back to Matz Sels was weak and Enciso raced clear before he found the bottom corner.

VAR took centre stage at the start of the second half when referee Thomas Bramall inexplicably failed to penalise Diop for hauling down McAtee before he decided upon review to hand out only a yellow card.

Glasner’s men failed to make the most of the subsequent free-kick and yet went close on the hour mark with a Williams’ shot blocked before Murillo’s effort on the turn was saved.

Murillo and then Dan Ndoye went close in quick succession – Davis again forced to produce a key intervention in front of goal.

Then Delap’s big moment arrived but he headed over after Abdoul Ouattara’s miscued clearance and then sent a 30-yard piledriver fractionally wide.

Forest lost Williams to a worrying arm injury minutes later and there was still time for Callum Hudson-Odoi to drill wide for the visitors before Ipswich substitute Jack Clarke fired off target to ensure the spoils were shared.