Nottingham Forest made it two wins on the bounce with an emphatic 3-0 victory at Molineux against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Three second half goals from Britt Assombalonga, Matty Fryatt and Henri Lansbury made sure Forest returned from the international break by securing all three points.
Forest started the first half looking very bright and fresh. Michail Antonio forced Ikeme into a smart save as he had an ambitious shot from outside the box. Forest even in the early stages looked like they had their confidence back after their dramatic late in against Norwich City before the international break. However, Wolves new signing Danny Graham looked lively for the home team and forced Darlow into making a good but comfortable save. Forest were then inches away from going 1-0 up as Henri Lansbury tried his look from long range with a curler and Ikeme managed to push his shot onto the post with a brilliant save. Lascelles then had a chance to convert from the rebound but made a terrible connection and it went wide of the post. Wolves then thought they had gone 1-0 up themselves as Edwards found space in the area and converted into the bottom corner. However, the celebrations didn't last long as the goal was disallowed for offside. Lascelles then got booked for handball just before half time as he prevented Wolves from taking a quick throwing on the attack. Forest went off for half time feeling very pleased with their first half performance and feeling they could kick on and get the win in the second half.
The Forest players came out very early for the second half, obviously very eager to get the win done and dusted. Forest had a great chance on the counter attack. Chris Burke ran at the Wolves defence and opted to slide the ball across to Henri Lansbury rather than shoot himself. Lansbury failed to convert the chance as his tame effort was hit straight at Ikeme. Danny Fox then almost scored as he had a right footed curler which went agonizingly close as it went past the top corner of the net. It was now beginning to look like a matter of time before Forest were going to go into the lead. Forest then did this with what was a fantastic move. There were around 15 passes or more involved in the build up mainly involving Lansbury, Antonio, Fryatt and Assombalonga. Fryatt helped finish off the move as his tidy footwork ended in him passing straight across goal for Assombalonga to notch in his 11th goal of the campaign to put Forest 1-0 up. Forest continued to attack the home team in an attempt to finish off the game. Forest won a corner quickly after and Henri Lansbury's ball was converted by Matty Fryatt whos looping header managed to find the bottom corner to make it 2-0 to Forest. Wolves did have chances as there was a scrap in the box but the ball just didn't fall for them to score and come back into the game. They were punished for not taking their chances as Michail Antonio came forward again and Henri Lansbury smashed the ball into the bottom corner after it had been cleverly dummied by Ben Osborn and Matty Fryatt. This finished off what was a fantastic and well deserved win for Forest in the West Midlands.
Overall, I believe this was by far Forest's best performance of the season so far. Forest were so clinical when attacking and punished Wolves dearly for the small amount of chances they did not manage to take. It was also pleasing to get a clean sheet after conceding so many goals in recent times which is never good. It was the first time the team really looked to gel since the injuries to Andy Reid, Chris Cohen and Jack Hobbs. I now hope that Pearce sticks with this team and formation which clearly works very well. Hopefully, we will now be able to take the momentum into the next run of fixtures.
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