Soccer Football - Premier League - Nottingham Forest v Ipswich Town - The City Ground, Nottingham, Britain - November 30, 2024 Nottingham Forest's Murillo in action with Ipswich Town's Arijanet Muric Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
NOTTINGHAM, England (Reuters) -Nottingham Forest's New Zealand striker Chris Wood's second-half penalty downed Ipswich Town 1-0 at the City Ground on Saturday as he became the club’s joint-top Premier League scorer.
The hosts got the spot kick after 48 minutes when Jota Silva was clipped by Sammie Szmodics and Wood blasted home for his ninth goal of the campaign and 24th in the Premier League for Forest to join their former Dutch winger Bryan Roy's tally.
Forest were good value for the win, though Ipswich came close to opening the scoring midway through the first half when Cameron Burgess’s glancing header from a corner was cleared off the line by fullback Ola Aina.
Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo's side move up to sixth place on 22 points from 13 games, while Ipswich remain in the relegation zone with nine in 19th spot.
Forest came into the game following back-to-back defeats but returned to winning ways with a comfortable victory that is their third in seven games at home this season.
Morgan Gibbs-White headed an early chance wide of goal but there was little else to excite either set of fans in a first half that was devoid of many clear-cut chances.
But when offered the chance, Wood took his penalty well and Forest, used to having the lead this season having scored the opening goal in 11 of their 13 Premier League games, were able to hold on with some comfort.
Ipswich barely caused alarm for their hosts apart from Burgess’s header and might have lost by a greater margin were it not for a superb save from goalkeeper Arijanet Muric.
Murillo’s header was brilliantly pushed on to the crossbar by Muric and the visitors were able to scramble the ball away.
Both managers might look at the performance of their respective sides and feel it should have been better, with Ipswich in particular lacking the firepower to get something from the game as they slipped to a sixth defeat of the season.
(Reporting by Nick Said; Editing by Ken Ferris and Clare Fallon)
