The prospect of Chris Wood writing his name in the Nottingham Forest history books or the team being sixth in the Premier League seemed somewhat outlandish when Nuno Espírito Santo was appointed head coach last December. Less than a year later both are true after the striker fired home his ninth goal of the season to down Ipswich.
When Nuno arrived for a relegation battle, Wood was a perennial substitute under Steve Cooper, but he quickly became a firm favourite of his replacement and has repaid him with consistent goals. Wood finds himself the club’s joint-top Premier League scorer with Bryan Roy after holding his nerve to settle a tight encounter.
“It’s a great achievement,” Nuno said of Wood, who will turn 33 on Saturday. “We are delighted, not only here, but in New Zealand. He’s going to break all the records. They are there to be broken, so we are delighted and he keeps delivering. Chris has this ambition to keep playing, so he has to take care of his body and his mind and he’s perfect.”
After two straight defeats, Nuno was looking for a reaction from Forest. He made his feelings known by making five changes after the loss to Arsenal last Saturday. Jota Silva came in for his first Premier League start and provided the energy and impetus desired by his manager.
The Portuguese international won a corner within 30 seconds of kick-off and forced Axel Tuanzebe into a booking in order to stop a counterattack. Wood was also back after being left on the bench following a taxing international break with New Zealand. “He had time to sleep before this game,” Nuno joked regarding his match-winner.
Forest dominated the first quarter of the match and looked threatening but were unable to test Arijanet Muric, despite a series of set pieces slung into the box. Instead it was Ipswich who could have taken the lead when Cameron Burgess flicked a corner across goal. Fortunately, Ola Aina was standing on the post to clear off the line. Ipswich were eager to slow things down, whether by delaying a restart or having a managed stop by getting treatment for one of their players when it seemed unnecessary, disrupting the flow of proceedings and creating a scrappy affair in the process.
It helped get Kieran McKenna’s side into the game and they would have opened the scoring if Liam Delap had not taken the ball away from Conor Chaplin after Matz Sels had palmed an Omari Hutchinson shot into his path.
It was Jota’s lively nature that resulted in Forest winning a penalty in the early stages of the second half, which Wood smashed down the middle to put him alongside Roy on 24 top-flight goals. There was contact between Jota and Sammie Szmodics – the Forest player made sure there was – but the fall was somewhat theatrical.
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The referee Tony Harrington was certain of his decision, while VAR saw no reason to change his mind. “We have to own it and we have to look at it and say that you can’t lunge in from behind in the penalty area,” McKenna said. “We had the box well covered, we had plenty of people in the frame of the goal and it’s not a particularly threatening situation. I think away from home especially, but away from home or at home we shouldn’t give the referee a possibility to make a decision there and it ends up being a decisive moment in the game.”
Muric produced a superb save, tipping a close-range Murillo header from a corner on to the bar to prevent Forest doubling the lead. Set pieces were causing Ipswich problems, as Elliot Anderson almost curled a corner straight in, forcing the goalkeeper to palm it away from under his own crossbar, before Burgess headed off the line to prevent Jota from scoring.
Ipswich struggled to cause problems for Forest’s defence as the much-lauded Delap was kept quiet by Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo. Despite the visitors chasing the game, Sels was allowed a relaxed afternoon, barely needing to be awake for Ipswich’s best chance of the second half when substitute Jack Clarke’s shot from inside the box was sent straight at the goalkeeper. It left Ipswich in the bottom three and Forest back on track.
