Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest served up a frenzied 10-goal bacchanal in the Championship on Wednesday evening as Villa Park played host to a manic 5-5 draw.
Like good tapas, the match had a little bit of everything. Forest were 2-0 up inside the first five minutes but a 25-minute hat-trick from Tammy Abraham ensured the sides went in level at half-time with the score locked at three goals apiece.
Joe Lolley then rattled Forest back in front shortly after the restart, the in-form winger powering a ferocious 30-yard strike past Villa ‘keeper Orjan Nyland…
Forest then had Tobias Figueiredo sent off for a raking challenge on John McGinn because of course the game called for a straight red card to add to the madness.
Abraham then added his fourth goal of the night to haul Villa back level again before substitute Anwar El Ghazi stroked the home side ahead with quarter of an hour left to play…
Forest top scorer Lewis Grabban popped up with his second goal of the contest in the 82nd minute to level the score at a frankly bewildering 5-5.
However, there was still time left for Villa to have not one, but two goals disallowed inside the final 10 minutes of the game.
The final whistle was greeted by a mass of knackered, adrenaline-sopped carcasses hitting the deck almost immediately as everybody involved desperately attempted to regather both their breath and their scrambled wits.
And to think, some of you chumps were busy watching the Champions League instead!