Nottingham Forest Came Top In Seven-goal Thriller With Southampton
Nottingham Forest came out on top in a seven-goal thriller at the City Ground to climb out of the bottom three and leave Southampton on the brink of relegation.
In a raucous atmosphere on a rain-soaked night, Forest established a two-goal cushion on three occasions – and each time the visitors responded to pull themselves back into the contest.
But Southampton couldn’t manage an equaliser. Now they must win all three remaining games and hope either Forest don’t pick up another point, or Everton fail to get more than one, otherwise they will be back in the Championship for the first time since 2012.
In contrast, Forest have their fate in their own hands.
Taiwo Awoniyi scored his first double for the club in the space of three first-half minutes, profiting first from Danilo’s superb cross-field pass that allowed Brennan Johnson to set him up to volley home from close range after a goalmouth scramble.
Carlos Alcaraz pulled one back for Southampton, only for Morgan Gibbs-White restore the home side’s two-goal cushion from the penalty spot a minute before the break.
After Lyanco’s header had given Southampton fresh hope at 3-2, Gibbs-White was then instrumental in Forest’s fourth.
The England Under-21 international had the awareness to flick Johnson’s cross into an unmarked Danilo’s path for a cool finish, rather than go for goal himself.
James Ward-Prowse’s injury-time penalty ensured nerves were being shredded right to the very last seconds of a staggering day of Premier League action.
At kick-off, both these sides occupied the bottom two places and ended with Forest scrambling up to 16th – three points clear of third-bottom Leicester – and with rising hopes of preserving their top-flight status.
This is Southampton’s 11th consecutive Premier League season – while West Ham canmatch that, only the ‘big six’ and Everton have been in longer; all nine clubs were given ‘long-term shareholder’ status in Project Big Picture.
This was the plan to reshape English football, formulated by the biggest clubs in the autumn of 2020, but disappeared amid the European Super League row that followed.
Saints were never actually told of the plan before it was launched but, at the time, they did appear to be one of those clubs who could survive quite easily – even if the days of Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman, which saw the club into Europe, had disappeared.
But ownership issues and poor recruitment have dragged them down and, this season, they have made a complete mess on the management side.
Ralph Hasenhuttl’s dismissal just before the World Cup came after a run of one win in nine games. His replacement, Nathan Jones, lasted only 95 days before he was sacked and Ruben Selles was given the job until the end of the season.
However, after winning two of his first three matches in charge, Selles has not presided over another victory.
Their only point in the past seven games came at Arsenal on 21 April, when Southampton held a two-goal advantage entering the final five minutes.
They have not kept a clean sheet since 12 March and the manner in which Forest got their goals in such a crucial game was symptomatic of a team who are just not good enough.
Forest’s second came when Alcaraz gifted possession to the hosts 30 yards from his own goal.
The third was when Ainsley Maitland-Niles slipped inside his own box and rather than temper what he was going to do, tried to execute a clearance anyway and only succeeded in kicking Johnson on the back of his leg.
Given they had trailed by two goals at half-time in 32 Premier League games and lost the lot since 2016, hopes were not high of a comeback.
