Wolves 0-3 Nottingham Forest
by Gene Sylvester
at Molineux Stadium

NUNO ESPIRITO SANTO brought his high-flying Nottingham Forest team across to the Molineux Stadium knowing that a victory would pull his side level on points with second-place Arsenal, and that they did quite emphatically, running out 3-0 winners against a hapless Wolves side.

Returning to his old stomping ground where he managed the club for four years between 2017 and 2021, Nuno also brought back an ex-Wolves player in Morgan Gibbs-White, and the former Wolves academy product was the one who opened the scoring, much to the dismay of the home crowd.

The opening goal came during a period where the Forest captain was being subjected to some dog’s abuse from the home fans with chants relating to his personal life. But the Forest captain silenced the taunts in the 7th minute when he fired home from 12 yards following an exchange of passes with Anthony Elanga in the Wolves box.

The Forest boss was pleased to see his captain get on the scoresheet against his old club.

“It’s always important for Morgan to score because he is a great talent. But he is always thankful to Wolves for what they did for him during his time here,” the Portuguese manager said.

Wolves had a chance to pull themselves level when Hee Chan Hwang went on a mazy run, cutting into the box from the left and firing a cross-cum-shot across the Forest goalmouth where Jurgen Strand Larsen was there to tap home from six yards, but the well-placed Murillo was on the line to clear the Norwegian’s effort.

A minute later, the industrious Rodrigo Gomes had a volleyed effort palmed away by Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels. This was closely followed by a Pedro Lima cross into the feet of Strand Larsen, but the tall Norwegian couldn’t sort his feet out and get his shot away as the home side piled the pressure on to get an equaliser.

The 34th minute saw a huge call for handball turned away by the referee when Ola Aina’s cross seemed to strike the arm of Rayan Ait-Nouri, but VAR ruled that the Wolves defender’s arm was in a natural position and therefore did not award the penalty.

Despite Wolves endeavour to draw themselves level in the match, it was Forest who doubled their lead minutes before half-time when the speedy Callum Hudson-Odoi showed Wolves Captain Matt Doherty a clean pair of heels down Forest’s left, making it to the byline before cutting back for Chris Woods who finished calmly into the opposite corner of Jose Sa’s goal.

Wolves were not able to get ahead of steam in the second half and Strand Larsen’s effort from the edge off the box in the 66th minute was the only notable save that Sels had to make in the Forest goal in a period where the home crowd would have expected an onslaught.

“We created the chance to score three or four goals, but we missed some detail inside the box to actually score,” Wolves boss Vitor Pereira rued.

Forest put the nail in the coffin in injury time when substitutes James Ward-Prowse and Taiwo Awonyi combined to set up the Nigerian striker to score his first goal of the campaign with a simple tap in, following the ex-Southampton midfielder’s low centre into the box.

“I would not say it was a fantastic performance, but it was a good performance that was based on hard work from the boys,” beamed Nuno after the game.