Chris Wood netted a second-half penalty as Nottingham Forest defeated Ipswich
The 32-year-old has netted nine times from 13 league appearances this season
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By JOE BERNSTEIN
Published: 11:56 EST, 30 November 2024 | Updated: 11:57 EST, 30 November 2024
Chris Wood became Nottingham Forest joint-highest Premier League scorer to keep Ipswich Town in the bottom three.
Wood scored the only goal from the penalty spot early in the second half after referee Tony Harrington adjudged Sammie Szmodics to have tripped Jota Silva.
The New Zealand international converted for his ninth goal of an impressive season and his 24th overall for Forest in the Premier League equalling the club record set by 1990s Dutch star Bryan Roy.
Victory was welcome for Forest who had lost their two previous games but are now in the top six. For Ipswich, their six-pointer against Crystal Palace on Tuesday now takes on even more significance.
Forest welcomed back Morgan Gibbs-White and Wood into the starting line-up and made a fast start.
Callum Hudson-Odoi had an early shot charged down and when skipper Ryan Yates fired the rebound towards the bottom corner, Szmodics stuck out a leg at the last moment and diverted for a corner.
In tit for tat, Forest then made their own goal-line clearance. Cameron Burgess convincingly won a header from an Ipswich corner but Ola Aina showed the worth of having a man by the post to hook away.
Gibbs-White tested Arjanet Muric with a low drive from the edge of the box as the home side attempted to regain their early momentum.
Instead, Ipswich – whose delaying tactics had been successful in quieting The City Ground – should have gone ahead after half-an-hour.
Omari Hutchinson cut inside and had a shot tipped back into the danger area by Matz Sels. It looked a simple tap-in for Conor Chaplin but Liam Delap eagerly stretched a leg to try and reach the ball and knocked it away from his team-mate.
Forest made the breakthrough after 49 minutes with a soft spot-kick.
Szmodics unwisely dangled a leg as Jota ran into the box and when there was the slightest of touches, the Forest player did his best Tom Daley impression to leap in the air before gravity took over.
Referee Tony Harrington gave it a good stare before pointing to the spot and after Ipswich protests, Wood thumped in the resulting penalty, opting for power into the roof of the net.
Muric kept his side in it with a brilliant fingertip save from Murillo and two further penalty appeals from Wood’ fell on deaf ears.
Kieran McKenna made his first change after 64 minutes sending on Jack Clarke. Within three minutes, the substitute wriggled into space but his final shot was straight at Sels.
Encouraged, the Ipswich boss then threw on Wes Burns and Jack Taylor for the final 15 minutes but they couldn’t conjure up the chance they wanted to earn a seventh draw of the season.