Tag: Nottingham Forest

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FOREST BEAT WOLVES 3-0 TO MOVE WITHIN SIX POINTS OF LEAGUE LEADERS LIVERPOOL

Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White celebrates scoring their side's first goal of the game during the Premier League match at Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton. Picture date: Monday January 6, 2025. PA Photo. See PA story SOCCER Wolves. Photo credit should read: Mike Egerton/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications.

Nottingham Forest opened the door to a surprise Premier League title challenge after a sixth win in a row with a 3-0 victory at Wolves.

A brilliant season under Nuno Espirito Santo continued at Molineux thanks to first-half goals from Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi’s strike at the death.

It meant they racked up six top-flight wins for the first time since 1979 when Brian Clough was in charge – a fitting achievement as Monday marked 50 years since the Forest great was appointed at the City Ground.

Nuno could be about to rekindle the magic Clough produced as Forest moved six points behind leaders Liverpool, who visit the City Ground next week in a clash which could decide whether they really are title contenders.

It was an especially good night for former Wolves player Gibbs-White and Callum Hudson-Odoi, who gave watching England manager Thomas Tuchel food for thought with a goal and an assist respectively.

Wolves, missing talisman Matheus Cunha, remain in trouble at the other end of the table, losing under new boss Vitor Pereira for the first time, with three missed chances in the first half proving costly.

Moments after being goaded by the Wolves fans, Gibbs-White shut them up in the best possible way by scoring in front of the home end in just the seventh minute.

Elliot Anderson set Gibbs-White free to break at pace, he played in Anthony Elanga and got the ball back to sweep home from 14 yards, with the aid of a slight deflection.

He was happy to remind the Wolves fans of their early barbing by celebrating with his hands in his ears in front of them.

Forest should have surrendered their lead soon after but two heroic acts denied Wolves.

First, Murillo produced a fine goal-line clearance after Hwang Hee-chan had burst into the area and teed up Jorgen Strand Larsen, who looked primed to score from a few yards out.

Then goalkeeper Matz Sels, one of Forest’s players of the season, produced a magnificent flying save to tip over Rodrigo Gomes’ fierce volley.

The visitors were living dangerously and Sels denied a certain goal in the 28th minute as he did well to block Strand Larsen’s close-range header from Gomes’ wicked cross.

Forest were under the cosh but thought they should have had a penalty in the 33rd minute when Ola Aina’s cross hit the partly-outstretched arm of Rayan Ait-Nouri, but referee Peter Bankes waved away protests and VAR Alex Chilowicz did not see it differently.

They did not sulk at that decision and doubled their lead in the 44th minute.

Hudson-Odoi made it, skinning Matt Doherty on the left and cutting back to Wood, who swept home into an empty net for his 12th of the season.

The second half was played on Forest’s terms, happy to give up possession and look to counter, and Wolves were unable to put their visitors under any sustained pressure.

The nearest they came to getting back into the game was in the 67th minute when Strand Larsen was again denied by Sels, who turned a deflected effort around the post.

Awoniyi made it 3-0 with the final act, tapping in from James Ward-Prowse’s tee up.

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LEVI COLWILL’S OWN GOAL GIFTS NOTTINGHAM FOREST PROMOTION TO THE PREMIER LEAGUE AFTER 23 YEARS.

Levi Colwill’s own goal sent Nottingham Forest into the Premier League for the first time in 23 years in a 1-0 Championship play-off final win over Huddersfield at Wembley.

Luckless centre-back Colwill put through his own net after James Garner’s teasing cross, that Jack Colback ducked under, and Ryan Yates failed to reach.

Chelsea’s 19-year-old loanee Colwill has impressed hugely at Huddersfield and will have the chance to battle for a first-team spot at Stamford Bridge later this summer.

But the talented teenage defender ended a fine season in most miserable fashion, handing Forest a return to the big time that the City Ground men have craved for so long.

Forest were bottom of the table and winless when Steve Cooper took charge in September – now they have won football’s most lucrative match and are headed to the top tier.

Financial experts rate the Championship play-off final as worth at least £170 million to the winners, and Forest will now enjoy a major cash injection to go along with the glory of a long-awaited return to the top.

Forest players like defender Djed Spence were not even born the last time the east midlanders tasted Premier League action back in 1999.

But a season that started in turmoil when Chris Hughton was sacked after seven winless matches and just one point in September, now Forest have pulled off a remarkable turnaround.

Former Swansea boss Cooper’s transformation of this Forest squad might not have been completed in the most enticing of fashion.

But the hordes of Forest fans crammed into Wembley will not care one jot.

Carlos Corberan’s Huddersfield can count themselves hugely unlucky on an afternoon where they simply failed to fire.

But two flimsy penalty shouts aside, Corberan’s men were ultimately toppled by the better-organised side, albeit amid slender margins.

Forest always had the better of a scrappy encounter, with Yates wasting a fine chance when heading wide from Garner’s teasing free-kick.

The midfielder blazed high and handsome from 18 yards in another half chance for the City Ground men.

Just when both sides looked happy to turn around in stalemate though, Forest forced the breakthrough.

Another testing ball from the ever-influential Garner was first ducked by Colback then missed by Yates – and the two close shaves left Colwill as the fall guy.

The young Chelsea prospect was forced into connecting with the ball, and could only divert into his own net.

Forest flagged after the break, with Jonathan Hogg heading over from a corner as Huddersfield pressed hard in search of a leveller.

Harry Toffolo thought he had earned the chance for his side to hit level terms when ending in a heap in the box after stepping past Colback.

Referee Jon Moss first booked Toffolo for diving, then a VAR check ruled out any chance of a penalty.

Huddersfield were left incensed by the call, but also still trailing their east midlands foes.

Another penalty shout was even more quickly dismissed when Max Lowe tangled with Lewis O’Brien, with Huddersfield again denied a spot-kick.

Huddersfield continued to press right until the death, but Forest clung on, to spark scenes as delirious on the pitch as in the stands.

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NOTTINGHAM FOREST STUN FA CUP HOLDERS LEICESTER IN DERBY-DAY DRUBBING

Nottingham Forest ran riot to dump holders Leicester out of the FA Cup.

The Reds demolished last season’s winners 4-1 at the City Ground after three goals in nine first-half minutes.

Philip Zinckernagel and Brennan Johnson scored twice in barely a minute before Joe Worrall made it 3-0.

Kelechi Iheanacho pounced on Brice Samba’s mistake but Djed Spence added a fourth in the second half to wrap up a dominant win.

Under Steve Cooper Forest have lost just four of 23 games, winning 13, but against their East Midlands rivals this will be the most satisfying.

A swashbuckling, intense and stylish display continued their upward trajectory with the former Swansea boss, who has taken them from relegation candidates to promotion hopefuls in just five months.

They can add FA Cup specialists to that list now too having already dumped out Arsenal. A home fifth-round tie with Huddersfield will have the locals dreaming of a first quarter-final since 1996.

The City Ground is now a place of hope, rather than one relying on its history, while Leicester’s season continues to unravel.

In the space of 11 games the Foxes have gone out of the Europa League, the Carabao Cup, the FA Cup and seen the gap to the top six grow from two points to 10.

Success in the Europa Conference League appears to be their best hope of European football next term but Brendan Rodgers has growing problems.

Not least in defence, which folded again after Leicester appeared to have settled at the City Ground.

Iheanacho and Ademola Lookman threatened early yet it was a false dawn as Forest blew them away in a devastating nine-minute spell.

Keinan Davis had already crashed a volley off the bar before Forest snatched two goals in just 87 seconds.

It was Johnson who was crucial to underline his importance to the hosts, who resisted January interest from Brentford.

First, after 23 minutes, his deep cross found Davis to nod down for the unmarked Zinckernagel to steal in between Daniel Amartey and Wilfred Ndidi and fire past Danny Ward.

Leicester then collapsed seconds later when, from the restart, Amartey’s awful back-pass found Johnson and he stroked through Ward’s legs to make it 2-0.

The holders had been obliterated and worse was to follow when they fell further behind after 32 minutes.

Ryan Yates had already missed a fine headed chance before Ward turned Zinckernagel’s shot wide and from Garner’s resulting corner Worrall’s diving header crept in.

But as the hosts celebrated a fan entered the field from the away section before starting to throw punches at the Forest players before being hauled away.

Forest swarmed over Leicester and Spence was denied by Ward, yet the hosts gifted the Foxes a lifeline they barely deserved five minutes before the break.

James Maddison’s cute pass found Iheanacho on the left with Samba inexplicably rushing out of his goal. The striker pushed the ball through the goalkeeper’s legs and finished well from an angle to give the visitors hope.

It completed a breathless half and the next goal was crucial. Patson Daka replaced Barnes at the break and he teed up Maddison to curl just wide eight minutes after the restart before firing over himself.

There was to be no heroic comeback, though, and Spence added a fourth just after the hour when he swapped passes with Zinckernagel to find the bottom corner.