Chris Wood continued his red-hot scoring form with a second-half double that sent Nottingham Forest fifth in the Premier League after a 3-1 win at East Midlands rivals Leicester.
Wood has netted seven Premier League goals this season putting him three behind top scorer Erling Haaland, while the New Zealand international also moved joint-second on Forest’s all-time Premier League goals list.
In an entertaining first half, Forest went ahead at the King Power Stadium in the 16th minute after Facundo Buonanotte and James Justin both failed to clear allowing Ryan Yates to arrow in first time from outside the box.
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Yates hits superb long-range strike to give Nottingham Forest lead!
But the visitors were quickly pegged back seven minutes later after some fine work from Harry Winks saw the midfielder cross for Jamie Vardy, who finished from close range with what turned out to be Leicester’s only shot on target of the match.
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Leicester go level after Jamie Vardy tucks away a Harry Winks cross!
Two minutes after the equaliser, Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen pulled off a stunning save to deny Nicolas Dominguez, which Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher described as “Schmeichel-like”.
But Hermansen could do nothing to stop Wood’s first goal just two minutes into the second half as the 32-year-old clinically fired home on the spin inside the box.
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Chris Wood’s clinical finish puts Nottingham Forest ahead!
Wood then grabbed his second in the 60th minute as he took advantage of further poor Leicester defending with a looping header for his fifth goal in five games.
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Chris Wood pounces as Leicester fail to deal with long ball!
Yates missed a glorious chance to add a fourth as Leicester boss Steve Cooper suffered defeat against his former side to leave the Foxes 14th and six points above the relegation zone.
Meanwhile, Cooper’s Forest replacement Nuno Espirito Santo, who watched on from the stands due to his three-game touchline ban, continues his fine work with a second win in four days to move a point off the top four.
Wood becomes Haaland’s closest Golden Boot challenger
Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood, speaking to Sky Sports on moving up to second in the top scorer charts:
“It’s very early on. I just want to keep playing consistently and doing as well as I can, scoring as many as I can and us keep pushing up as high as we can on the team.
“It’s a very formidable man (Erling Haaland) to chase. He’s outstanding and he’s always going to be outstanding.
“He’s probably going to go on and score 30 goals again this season, so it’s a big man to chase.”
Wood moved three goals behind top scorer Erling Haaland
On Nuno’s impact on his form: “He’s come in and he’s put emphasis on getting the balls in the box, getting people in the box, and that supplies T (Taiwo Awoniyi) and I extremely well.
“We’re two big centre-forwards that love deliveries and love crosses, love anything in the box, and that’s what we thrive off. So he’s worked on that on the training pitch and thankfully it’s come to the fold.”
On what’s changed for the team: “I think it’s consistency of what Nuno’s been working on.
“He tried to implement a lot last season and we took bits from it and got better and better. But we were also conceding such poor goals at times.
“I think the confidence of keeping clean sheets, doing well at the back and then building and scoring goals at the same time, it helps so much. I think that consistency going through is the biggest thing.”
Nuno: Wood deserves plaudits
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Nuno Espirito Santo hailed the commitment of his Nottingham Forest players after their 3-1 win against Leicester and said the fans deserve the performance and victory.
Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo speaking to Sky Sports on Wood:
“He’s done an amazing job. He’s very honest and he gives everything on the pitch for us. We are delighted and we want to continue. Chris deserves his plaudits.”
On moving up to fifth: “It’s not about the table. What is more important is seeing the fans how they are today. We see these players work every day and we demand from them.
“It was a tough season last season but it’s in the past. Now we have a new cycle. More important than anything is the bind inside of the pitch.”
On the most pleasing thing from the match: “It’s the commitment. This group wants to progress and they want to make the fans enjoy. The limit is the next training session and then against West Ham, it’ll be tough.”
Cooper: We have to take responsibility for ‘poor mistakes’
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Steve Cooper reacted to Leicester’s 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest and said the goals they conceded were self-inflicted and punished by the opposition.
Leicester boss Steve Cooper speaking told Sky Sports:
“It’s self-inflicted, no doubt about that, and it’s on us. We all have to take responsibility for how the game panned out.
“We made poor mistakes for the goals, no doubt about it, and we were punished for it but I just think conceding so early on in the second half was obviously not a good thing.
“There was still a lot of time for the game to settle again, us to carry on with things we were doing in the first half, improve and be the threat we wanted to be.
“The third goal was just a real killer and still there was a lot of time left, but the game just became a little bit of trying to get players on in certain positions, territory – all that stuff – defenders on, extra attackers on. We just lost any sort of rhythm we got in the first half – we lost it completely because of the scoreline, so it’s on us.
“We have to take responsibility for it. It’s a setback after winning a few games coming into this. We have to accept it, completely on us and me and we’ve got punished for the poor giveaways on the goals.
“Forest are a counter-attacking team, they are really good at it, and we gifted them moments for them to show that.”
Top 10 shouldn’t be height of Forest’s ambitions
Sky Sports’ Ben Grounds:
“Three years ago today, Nottingham Forest were 16th in the Championship under Steve Cooper. They entered the weekend fifth in the Premier League with Chris Wood the second-top scorer.
Wood has scored seven goals in the Premier League this season
“The only remnant if that Forest promotion-winning side was in the home dugout at the King Power Stadium. As for Wood, who moved level with Stan Collymore as Forest’s second-highest all-time Premier League goalscorer on 22 goals, his importance cannot be overstated.
“Seventeen of those strikes have come since last Christmas Day, with only Erling Haaland having scored more non-penalty goals in that time. Ryan Yates, who scored the opener on his 150th league start for Forest, described the first half as “like a basketball match”, but Nuno Espirito Santo made a slight tactical tweak at the break to nullify Leicester’s box midfield.
“Wood’s class was the difference but Forest collectively took the game by the scruff of the neck after the break and have now taken 11 points from their opening five away league games. A top-half finish – even at this stage – shouldn’t be the height of their ambitions.”
