New Delhi: Nottingham Forest started strong on matchday 24 in front of Brighton and Hove Albion in front of their home crowd at City Ground. Coming from 5-0 bashing in the hands of Bournemouth, the Tricky Trees broke their deadlock after when Danilo played into Morgan Gibbs-White’s foot on the right. Gibbs-White stroke a low shot and Lewis Dunk, in his effort to stop the goal, deflected the ball into his own goal in the 12th minute.
Gibbs-White got into the scoring himself in the 25th minute when Yankuba Minteh tackled the 25-year-old and brought a corner on the left side, which Anthony Elanga delivered for Gibbs-White to go past Bart Verbruggen, scoring the fifth time this season in the top-flight. Seven minutes later, Elanga earned his second assist of the game when he went down towards the edge of the box on the right side and played his shot for Chris Wood to head into the bottom-left corner.
With pressure increasing on the Seagulls, Danny Welbeck tried to score Brighton’s first goal but Marz Sels made an extraordinary effort to thwart the effort with his left hand. Brighton had another corner effort which went in vain and ultimately ended their first half 3-0 behind their hosts.
Bouncing back in style. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/is02ohIS54
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) February 1, 2025
A goal-fest of the second half
The second half started slowly as Nottingham were keen on keeping their lead intact. In the 64th minute, Wood scored his second goal when Elanga earning his third assist of the game was again running down the right side with Wood joining him in the run and received a simple pass which he easily slotted home. Brighton’s defence looked vulnerable from the start and it just became worse from this point.
Five minutes later, Chris Wood scored his hattrick from a penalty shot which Gibbs-White earned after being tackled on the ground by Tariq Lamptey. Neco Shay Williams then got the Garibaldis their sixth goal after Brighton failed to clear Taiwo Awoniyi’s as Ibrahim Sangare’s touch earned him his first assist of this season. Just two minutes later, Jota Silva got on the scoresheet as well while Verbruggen’s poor evening kept getting worse.
The Dutch shot-stopper got out of his box with Silva intercepting and scored into the bottom-right corner for his first goal for the side. Nottingham ended the game with a 7-0 win and tentatively have a six-point lead over Manchester City.
Man of the Match
1987 – Chris Wood is the first Nottingham Forest player to score a top-flight hat-trick at the City Ground since Nigel Clough against QPR in December 1987. Awaited. pic.twitter.com/rV9Hp8k7t5
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 1, 2025
Chris Wood was the stand-out performer without a question. Wood played 82 minutes for his hat trick from his total of four shots at the goal and created one chance. In total, he had 24 touches, with five coming in the opposition and made three dispossessions. He won a total of four duels en route to scoring the first hattrick for Nottingham Forest at the City Ground since Nigel Clough’s exploits in 1987.
Brighton had no response to the New Zealander’s performance as he became the joint third-highest scorer this season with 17 goals overall. Wood’s performance would be a reassuring sight for Nottingham as they close in on a title finish.
Chris Wood stars with a hattrick in Nottingham Forest’s 7-0 win over Brighton and Hove Albion in the City Ground as they sit just six points behind the table leaders Liverpool. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
