Soccer Football - Premier League - Wolverhampton Wanderers v Nottingham Forest - Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, Britain - January 6, 2025 Nottingham Forest's Taiwo Awoniyi scores their third goal Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
WOLVERHAMPTON, England (Reuters) -Chris Wood scored his 12th Premier League goal of the season as third-placed Nottingham Forest beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 at Molineux Stadium on Monday, keeping them on course for an unlikely title challenge.
Morgan Gibbs-White and substitute Taiwo Awoniyi were also on target for the visitors as they won their sixth top-flight game in a row, the first time they have managed that feat since 1979 under then manager Brian Clough.
Forest have 40 points from 20 games, six behind leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand. Forest's tally is the same number as Leicester City had accumulated by the same point of the 2015/16 campaign when they went on to become shock Premier League champions.
"It is about consistency and doing what we have been doing extremely well already this season. Not letting up halfway through. We need to keep going," Wood said.
"It is all about confidence, belief and responsibility, and a team that works to all of our strengths. It is not the same every week, we try to tweak things to get better.
"It is well and truly too early (to talk about a title challenge), we are not thinking about that."
Wolves had their chances, not least striker Jorgen Strand Larsen who might have had a hat-trick but was wasteful in front of goal. They have 16 points from 20 games and are only out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
Former Wolves player Gibbs-White gave the visitors the lead inside seven minutes. A lightning counter-attack saw the midfielder feed Anthony Elanga and when he took the return pass, Gibbs-White fired low into the bottom right corner of the net.
Wolves should have gone level when Strand Larsen had a tap-in three metres from goal, but the forward saw his effort blocked on the line by Murillo with the goal gaping.
Strand Larsen had another excellent chance with a header that was saved from point-blank range by Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels.
The visitors doubled their advantage before halftime with an almost inevitable Wood goal. Callum Hudson-Odoi made a storming run down the left wing and, after holding off Matt Doherty, pulled the ball back for a side-footed finish from the New Zealand striker.
Strand Larsen forced another good save from Sels but the chances dried up for Wolves.
Awoniyi completed a perfect night for the visitors when he got his first goal since February after he was teed-up by fellow substitute James Ward-Prowse.
(Reporting by Nick Said; editing by Clare Fallon)
