At the end of it all, there was an excruciating and rather melancholic scene in which Ange Postecoglou headed out across the pitch to shake the hands of his players and found them wandering off in other directions, leaving him to stand alone and applaud the visiting contingent of fans.
Ryan Yates, a player who is class right down to his bootstraps, was one of the few to seek him out. And another crumb of consolation to be taken today is the Forest fans' decision not to join the Newcastle faithful's robust rendition of 'sacked in the morning,' which they had sung on Thursday night when the return of European football to the City Ground brought defeat by Midtjylland.