Morgan Gibbs-White played a starring role as Nottingham Forest gave their Premier League survival hopes a massive boost with a pulsating 4-3 win over rockbottom Southampton.
Forest climbed out of the bottom three thanks to Taiwo Awoniyi’s brace, Gibbs-White’s penalty and Danilo’s brilliant team goal to give realistic hope that they can avoid the drop on their first season back in the top tier for 23 years.
They took full advantage of defeats for Leeds and Leicester to move up to 16th, three points above the drop zone with three games to play.
Southampton’s situation is far bleaker and, despite goals from Carlos Alcaraz, Lyanco and James Ward-Prowse to keep them in the game, their 10-year stay in the top flight will end if they fail to beat Fulham on Saturday, while results elsewhere could also send them down even if they do win.
It was a thrilling end-to-end encounter at the City Ground that completed a bumper Bank Holiday goals bonanza as the 21 goals scored on Monday are a Premier League record for a three-game matchday.
And Gibbs-White told Sky Sports: “It’s the best feeling in the world, especially when the game is ending like that. Fair play to Southampton. In the situation they’re in, they’re still fighting but we showed resilience, stuck together, got the job done and got three vital points.
“It was vital for us. We’ve not been too good when we’ve gone in front so it was all about game management. We stuck to the manager’s plan and tried to see it out. Fair play to Southampton, they tried to get back into it a few times but we stuck together as a team.
“I wouldn’t say I felt pressure (on the penalty), we were 2-1 up at the time. We’d done our homework, we knew that he likes to save them low and in the corner so it was either going high or down the middle and luckily enough it went in.
“It’s tough when we look at the fixtures (to come) but we’re a real together team. If you come into the training ground you’d see how together we are so we’ll go in with high hopes and fighting.”
