Nottingham Forest boosted their hopes of Premier League survival with a convincing victory over Fulham at the City Ground Tuesday night.
Despite Fulham threatening a comeback in the second period, the home side’s three first-half goals were enough to move them three points clear of the relegation zone.
Callum Hudson-Odoi opened the scoring after nine minutes, cutting inside and slotting home after Morgan Gibbs-White’s sublime threaded pass found the forward on the left-hand side.
Chris Wood continued his impressive goalscoring form 10 minutes later with a superb strike from range – his eighth in nine appearances – before Gibbs-White added a third, placing a low drive into the bottom corner.
It looked like Forest had the points wrapped up by half-time but a breathless second period began with Tosin Adarabioyo’s glancing header pulling one back for the visitors after just four minutes.
Chances were in abundance at both ends as Neco Williams hammered a shot off the bar and a fine Matz Sels save denied Adarabioyo a second, while Kenny Tete also fired against the underside of the bar.
The result leaves Fulham 13th, while 17th-placed Forest will travel to Tottenham on Sunday with renewed confidence about their hopes of staying up.
According to BBC Sports, following Forest’s four-point deduction for breaches of Premier League financial rules – a decision they will appeal – they urgently needed to do their talking on the pitch to put breathing space between themselves and the bottom three.
A resilient performance against Crystal Palace last time out earned them a point and left them separated from 18th-placed Luton by goal difference.
Now they can take positives from not only a dominant first-half performance, where they created plenty of chances and shut Fulham out, but also for their resilience in the second half to foil the visiting side’s fightback.
