Nuno Espirito Santo said Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood has plenty left in the tank after his winning penalty against Ipswich saw him become the club’s joint-top Premier League scorer.
Wood, 32, provided the game’s decisive moment when emphatically converting from the spot early in the second half for his ninth top-flight goal this season. Only Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah have scored more.
The New Zealander moved level on 24 top-flight goals in total for Forest, alongside former Netherlands winger Bryan Roy, who spent three years at the City Ground until 1997.
Nuno said after the 1-0 win: “We are delighted. Not only here, but in New Zealand he’s going to break all the records. They are there to be broken, so we’re delighted he keeps delivering.”
When asked if Wood can continue in the Premier League for a few more seasons, Nuno added: “I believe so.
“As long as Chris does it. Nowadays players really take care of themselves, with nutrition, the rest – it’s so important and Chris has this ambition to keep playing.
“He has to keep taking care of his body and his mind. He’s perfect now and as long as he continues.”
Forest returned to winning ways after back-to-back defeats, in which they conceded six goals, and climbed one place up to sixth in the table.
Nuno was delighted with his side’s clean sheet, adding: “We say this over and over again, but I truly believe this should be our mindset, not only as a team or squad, as a club. We have to be very hard to beat.
“We speak with the players about that during the week. We need to go back to basics. Let’s be solid. Solid is being aggressive. Sticking to your task, helping your team-mates.”
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna had no complaints with referee Tony Harrington’s penalty decision.
McKenna said: “Of course it was a big moment in the game. I’ve not (seen) the angles of the decision back.
“But I think we have to own it and look at it and say you can’t lunge in from behind in the penalty area.
“We had the box well covered, we had plenty of people in the frame of goal, it’s not a particularly threatening situation.
“We shouldn’t give the referee the chance to make a decision there. It was the decisive moment in the game.
“The game didn’t have a lot of flow to it. Neither team created an awful lot from open play and we’ve given away a soft goal.”