Nott'm Forest 3 Fulham 1
Nuno Espirito Santo is still trying to undo the points deduction they received from the Premier League, which plunged them into the bottom three. Fortunately, as a result of that overspending, the manager has 43 players to help him address that problem.
Forest welcomed Fulham to the City Ground, who have been a real Jekyll and Hyde team this season. When they turn it on, they look capable of beating anyone. Sadly for Marco Silva, this happens about as often as VAR adding value to a football match.
Morgan Gibbs-White is the standout player in this Nott’m Forest team. He played a sublime pass on the outside of his boot through the Fulham defence to set Hudson-Odoi away. He cut inside onto his right foot and buried his effort into the far corner of the goal.
Forest’s playmaker was at it again as he put the same player clean through on goal. The former Chelsea winger struggled to adjust his feet and gave Leno time to close him down before shooting. The Fulham keeper spread himself well to make an important block.
Credit:@NFFC
The City Ground was bouncing as they were enjoying seeing their side dominate the game. The ball was played into Wood outside the box, who took one touch to control it before turning and drilling his shot into the bottom corner of the goal.
It was a moment of magic from the big striker, which left Leno rooted to the spot. This was the Nott’m Forest their fans were hoping to have seen more of this season. Although Fulham contributed well by not turning up for the first half of this game.
Elanga then played a neat one-two with Gibbs-White and was through on goal but slotted his shot wide of the post. It was a huge chance for Forest to put this game beyond the visitors before the interval. Marco Silva looked like he wanted to cause harm to quite a few of his players.
Gibbs-White burst forward once again and played the ball into Danilo. He held it up momentarily before feeding it back into the path of the midfielder. Not needing an invite, the midfielder slotted past Leno to send the home fans into raptures.
Marco Silva must have read his side the riot act at the interval. Despite this, all eleven players returned to pitch with no visible cuts or bruises to them. They did however, look a completely different team to the one we saw in the first half.
The Cottagers forced an early corner and Pereira’s cross was met by Tosin, whose header beat Sels and gave the visitors a lifeline. It also made their fans long trip up from London seem less of a mistake with the entire half still to play.
Credit: @premierleague
Forest almost conjured up an instant reply when Williams and Gibbs-White exchanged passes out wide. The Welsh defender cut inside and got a shot off at goal, which took a slight deflection, before thundering against the crossbar and coming back out.
The ball dropped to Danilo who drilled a fierce shot that seemed to be heading for the back of the net before it struck Wood and deflected clear. There was little the striker could do to get out of the way as the effort was struck with such venom.
Traore twisted and turned out wide before clipping a cross in that picked out Tosin, whose header was tipped around the post by Sels. From the resulting corner, Tete met it with his head, only to see his effort rebound off the crossbar.
As Fulham committed more and more players forward, Forest broke. The ball was played into Origi in acres of space. He made a beeline for the goal and his shot narrowly missed the far post to finally put this game to bed. Nuno Espirito Santo held his head in his hands.
In added time Traore drove into the box and drilled a shot at goal, only to see his effort cannon back off the outside of the post. It was just not happening for Fulham, they had dominated the second half but lacked the goals to underpin their work rate.
Forest held on for all three points, putting them three points clear of Luton Town. There are rumours that the club may have to sell Gibbs-White to balance the books, on this display, they would be better off selling the south stand first.
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