Premier League: Nottingham Forest 3 (Anderson 11, Hudson-Odoi 28, Wood 41) Southampton (Bednarek 60, Onuachu 90+1)
It is impossible to avoid the sense that something special is stirring on the Trent. Nottingham Forest averted a late scare to dispatch bottom club Southampton to move level on points with second-placed Arsenal and extend their unbeaten run to eight Premier League matches.
Forest were rampant, roaring into a 3-0 lead inside 41 minutes before the visitors pulled a goal back, via an unknowing Jan Bednarek, and then Paul Onuachu headed in from a corner early in second-half stoppage time to tee up an unlikely grandstand finish. Ola Aina then cleared a Bednarek header off the line from another corner.
So Saints, who led for 82 minutes at Old Trafford before collapsing as Amad Diallo hit a hat-trick for Manchester United on Thursday, belatedly showed some guts but it is now five defeats from five under Ivan Juric.
Nuno Espírito Santo told how Ola Aina, who played under Juric at Torino, gave him the lowdown on what to expect but few would have envisaged the finale that played out after Forest had a fourth goal disallowed by the referee, Anthony Taylor, after a VAR review.
Aaron Ramsdale inadvertently fumbled Nikola Milenkovic’s header into his own net but an offside Chris Wood, again on the scoresheet, was deemed to have been interfering with play.
For Forest, this was another clinical display, all three first-half shots on target all resulting in goals, the first from Elliot Anderson, his first for the club, before Callum Hudson-Odoi and Wood gave a considerable buffer.
Southampton offered little in attack but got a fortuitous consolation, the substitute Lesley Ugochukwu’s speculative shot on the hour cannoning in off Bednarek, who was at fault for Forest’s second, which was a tragicomedy from a Saints perspective.
Joe Aribo ventured towards halfway before Flynn Downes, who Ugochukwu replaced at the break, pushed a pass back to Bednarek. Then the ball went back to Downes who, under pressure from Morgan Gibbs-White, played it to James Bree, the right-sided centre back, who promptly shifted possession to Bednarek to his left. The ball bobbled off Bednarek’s right shin, Wood seized on it and then Bednarek flung himself at it to prevent it reaching Hudson-Odoi. Too late. Hudson-Odoi swivelled, picked his spot and buried a shot into the inside netting of Ramsdale’s goal.
For Southampton, it was another sorry performance in a shocker of season. Every defeat increases the likelihood Saints, who have won only one league game all season, may not reach Derby County’s record low points tally of 11 in 2007-08.
Juric was so narked by the manner of Forest’s first goal that, while a delighted Anderson was mobbed by his team-mates, the Croat charged on to the pitch to vent his fury at his players before chucking a water bottle to the floor in frustration.
It stemmed from a Forest throw just inside the Southampton half. Gibbs-White expertly used Downes as a mannequin, flicking Neco Williams’s throw round the corner of the Southampton midfielder, and from there Anderson drove forward unchallenged and potted the ball low into the bottom corner.
It seemed as though Forest were out of sight by the time Wood scored an excellent header from the penalty spot, converting Aina’s cross from the right, but Forest were not so assured once Ugochukwu’s shot from the edge of the area diverted in off Bednarek.
Before then Bednarek cleared a Gibbs-White shot off the line but the 12 added minutes were even more hairy for the hosts, Forest clinging on after Onuachu glanced in at the front post. Murillo stormed forward into the opposition box in search of a fourth Forest goal with the last action of a crazy, crazy match. – Guardian
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