Nottingham Forest’s newest news, with both players scoring in a 3-1 victory over the Cottagers at the City Ground on Tuesday night.
Both Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood have stated that Nottingham Forest have not yet demonstrated the full potential of their squad this season, despite blowing Fulham away in the first half.
Goals from Callum Forest’s Hudson-Odoi, Wood, and Gibbs-White helped them to a 3-0 lead at the City Ground before halftime. Fulham did score in the early parts of the second half, but Forest were able to finish the game and earn what could be a crucial three points in the quest for survival.
The encounter came four days after Crystal Palace’s 1-1 draw, in which Wood scored again. Speaking after the win over Fulham, Gibbs-White stated that the team’s first-half effort against the Cottagers was a continuation of what they demonstrated in the second half versus Palace.
“We were building on the last game, the second half,” he told TNT Sport. “We knew we had to come out strong and we have to start doing that more often because you can see the talent in the squad, you can see what we can do, so we’ve got to keep building on that and keep improving.”
When asked what Nuno’s message was at halftime, Gibbs-White responded: “To try to maintain what we did in the first half; we were relatively faultless in the first half, so there wasn’t much to criticize; we just had to keep going to keep trying to improve.
“We knew Fulham were going to come out fighting so we had to keep calm and keep together as a team and we showed that.”
In his post-match interview with TNT Sport, Wood again discussed the squad’s quality. He has urged his teammates to carry their performances into the remaining games of the season, with the Kiwi striker highlighting three in particular.
“We’ve got so much in attack and even the boys on the bench coming on, we’ve got a great squad and we just haven’t shown it enough this season, and we just have to stand up and be counted for now,” he told reporters. “We showed it here tonight but there’s still another seven games to go which we need to show.”
He added: “We’ve got three of the ones around us or below us in the next games, Sheffield [United] away, Burnley away, and Everton away, so we’ve got it all under control now. So we’ve got to keep displaying it; we’ve shown glimpses of it in most games, but I believe the clinical component is what needs to come into our game, as it did tonight, and that will help us through.”
Forest’s next game is on Sunday afternoon against Tottenham Hotspur in North London. Spurs and West Ham United tied 1-1 at the London Stadium on Tuesday night.
