Nottingham Forest had to settle for a draw at Ipswich Town amid their continued struggle for goals

With less than 10 minutes on the clock, Nottingham Forest striker Liam Delap found himself with a bit of space and a sight of goal on Friday night.

There was no doubt about what the 23-year-old would do. Morgan Gibbs-White was screaming for the pass, but Delap had one thought on his mind.

He cut onto his right and aimed for the near post as he unleashed a shot from inside the box. A loud “whey” went up from the home crowd.

Delap had missed. His effort flew well wide. Ipswich Town fans didn’t need a second invite to poke fun at their former forward.

It wasn’t the return to his old stomping ground Delap had been hoping for. The Reds had to settle for a 1-1 draw against the newly-promoted side, after Neco Williams’ opener was cancelled out, and the man tasked with leading the line didn’t last the full 90 minutes.

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Delap was hooked in the closing stages as Oliver Glasner brought on Chris Wood in the final minutes, in a bid to try to snatch a winner. The change didn’t yield the desired result either, with goals continuing to be a problem for Forest.

"This is the question we've been asking ourselves in training every week,” Gibbs-White told Sky Sports (via the BBC) when the issue of the Reds’ wastefulness was put to him after the final whistle. “We've been doing shooting drills and everything. If you could see how we were shooting yesterday (Thursday), it was top.

"Unfortunately they couldn't go in today. It's not good enough but I'm proud of the boys for continuing to keep going and keeping performances high."

Finding the back of the net isn’t all on Delap. Opportunities have been squandered throughout the team, despite the attacking talent at Glasner’s disposal.

Nevertheless, the Reds head coach does need to find a way of getting the best out of the club’s £45 million summer signing. After all, he showed what he is capable of with his goal against Aston Villa and the way he caused Arsenal all sorts of problems at the City Ground.

Delap might not have got on the scoresheet in that 1-0 reverse to the Gunners but he proved to be a thorn in the side of the champions’ defence. He worked hard and contributed some decent hold-up play at Portman Road, too - including being involved in the build-up to Williams’ goal - but, inevitably, it is the regularity of finding the back of the net on which strikers are judged.

According to Opta, against Ipswich, Delap led the way for his team in terms of number of efforts at goal (three) - including taking two shots from inside the box. However, he failed to find the target with any of them and finished with an expected goals (xG) of 0.362. On the latter, he was second only to Gibbs-White (0.755) among the away side.

In total, from his seven Premier League appearances since his switch from Chelsea, Delap has an xG of 2.23 for Forest. It leaves him with a goals vs xG of -1.23 - compared to -1.43 for Gibbs-White and -0.31 for Dan Ndoye.

Delap has notched up a total of 21 shots, three of which have been on target, but only one of which has gone in (against Villa) to give him a conversion rate of 4.76%. His xG per shot stands at 0.11.

Among Forest’s squad, the injured Igor Jesus currently has the best conversion rate at 11.11%, with four of his nine shots finding the target. Ndoye is next on the list with 10.53% conversion rate, followed by Williams (8.33%) and Gibbs-White (7.14%), then Delap.

Attacking improvement is needed throughout the squad. The Reds are underperforming at the top end of the pitch, with their -7.49 gap between goals scored (six) and xG (13.49) the biggest in the division.

Overall, Delap wasn’t as effective in Suffolk as he would like to have been. He made 16 passes, of which nine were accurate, put in one tackle, conceded three fouls and won one foul himself. He might not have had any control over the money paid for him - and the substantial fee is a sign of the market as much as anything else - but Forest will want bang for their buck eventually.

Glasner has consistently said he trusts Delap and will continue to support him while backing him to come good. Even if the Austrian did want to mix things up, he doesn’t have too many options. Wood has missed some big chances himself this term while Jesus has looked good from off the bench but is injured. In any case, the latter and Arnaud Kalimuendo are not viewed as out-and-out strikers.

Glasner remains convinced the floodgates will soon open and his team will start getting their just rewards, though. His tactic is not to make a big deal about Forest’s goalscoring woes so that it doesn’t weigh on his players’ minds.

“Sometimes you try a huge effort and things don't work,” the Austrian said on Friday. “You are encouraging them to keep going because you have these periods in sport and life.

“When I see the way we play, the spirit and the chances, the only way now is to stay patient and not make the problem bigger. It's a question of time and maybe in a few weeks you will be asking why we are scoring so many goals."

Prior to the game, Glasner had said his aim was to find a way of getting Delap into better positions so as to increase the number of shots he takes. More shots equals more chance of a goal being scored, was the theory.

“When we had 24 shots at Selhurst Park (in the 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace), he had just two finishes,” Glasner had said. “He’s one of our best finishers in the team, so I would like him to have six or seven finishes - because if Liam Dilap has six or seven finishes, I'm very confident that one finds the net because he's so good at this. It’s getting him into the right areas and into the position where he can have more finishes.”

It is worth bearing in mind that Delap is coming off the back of a tough season at Stamford Bridge. His 2025 move to the capital didn’t go to plan and he scored just twice in 41 appearances.

There are mitigating factors behind that, of course, as it was difficult all round at Chelsea. It should also be noted that he is still young and, as Glasner has pointed out, has had one really impactful campaign in the top flight - when he bagged 12 goals in 37 Premier League outings for Ipswich in 2024/25 - so is still learning.

Getting Delap back to that kind of form is the aim for Glasner. As with the Reds in general this term, some patience may be required.