Nottingham Forest's Chris Wood celebrates with teammates after scoring what proved the only goal.Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Action Images/Reuters
The prospect of Chris Wood writing his name in the Nottingham Forest history books or the team being sixth in the Premier League seemed somewhat outlandish when Nuno Espírito Santo was appointed head coach last December. Less than a year later both are true after the striker fired home his ninth of the season to down Ipswich.
When Nuno arrived for a relegation battle, Wood had been a perennial substitute under Steve Cooper but quickly became a firm favourite of his replacement and has repaid him with consistent goals. Wood finds himself the club’s joint-top Premier League scorer with Bryan Roy after holding his nerve to settle a tight encounter.
After two straight defeats, Nuno was looking for a reaction from Forest. He made his feelings known by making five chances after the loss to Arsenal last weekend. Jota Silva came in for his first Premier League start and provided the energy and impetus desired by his manager. The Portuguese international won a corner within 30 seconds of kick-off and forced Axel Tuanzebe into a booking in order to stop a counterattack.
Forest dominated the first quarter of the match and looked threatening but were unable to test Arijanet Muric, despite a series of set pieces slung into the box. Instead it was Ipswich that could have taken the lead when Cameron Burgess flicked a corner across goal but Ola Aina was standing on the post to clear off the line.
Ipswich were eager to slow things down, whether by delaying a restart or having a managed stop by getting treatment for one of their players when it seemed unnecessary, disrupting the flow of proceedings and creating a scrappy affair in the process. It helped get Kieran McKenna’s side into the game and they would have opened the scoring if Liam Delap had not taken the ball away from Conor Chaplin after Matz Sels had palmed an Omari Hutchinson shot into his path.
It was Jota’s lively nature that resulted in Forest winning a penalty in the early stages of the second half, which Wood smashed down the middle to put him alongside Roy on 24 top-flight goals. There was contact between Jota and Sammie Szmodics but the fall was somewhat theatrical. The referee Tony Harrington was certain of his decision, while the video assistant referee saw no reason to try to change his mind.
Muric performed a superb save, tipping a close-range Murillo header from a corner on to the bar to prevent Forest doubling the lead. Set pieces were causing Ipswich problems, as Elliot Anderson almost curled a corner straight in, forcing the goalkeeper to palm it away from under his own crossbar before Burgess headed off the line to prevent Jota from scoring.
Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.
If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.
In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.
Turn on sport notifications.
Ipswich struggled to cause problems to Forest’s defence as the much-lauded Delap was kept quiet by Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo. Despite the visitors chasing the game, Sels was allowed a relaxed afternoon, barely needing to be awake for Ipswich’s best chance of the second half when the substitute Jack Clarke’s shot from inside the box was sent straight at the goalkeeper to leave Ipswich in the bottom three and Forest back on track.