Nottingham Forest's New Zealand striker Chris Wood celebrates after scoring his team's third goal against Manchester United in a Premier League game at Old Trafford. Dec 7, 2024.
Chris Wood's 25th Premier League goal broke Bryan Roy's club record. Photo: AFP
All Whites striker Chris Wood has celebrated his 33rd birthday in style, scoring the decisive goal in Nottingham Forest's 3-2 win over Manchester United to become the club's all-time leading Premier League goal scorer.
Wood has broken Bryan Roy's club record with his 25th goal and is third on the Premier League goalscoring tally for the season with 10, behind Mohammed Salah and Erling Haaland with 13 apiece.
The 54th minute header should have been dealt with by United's defence with Lisandro Martinez and goalkeeper Andre Onana both left exposed on the line. It made the score 3-1.
Bruno Fernandes scored for United seven minutes later but Forest held them out for the remainder of the match.
"It's fantastic, it's nice that I can keep doing well for the team and that's all I want to do, keep pushing up and getting as many goals as possible for this team," Wood said after the game.
Wood had certainly impressed Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo.
"He's doing amazing. We're so glad to have him. It's never too late," he told BBC's Match of the Day.
United's new head coach Ruben Amorim has plenty on his plate with his side's defence poor, as they failed to clear from Forest corners, Reuters reported.
"When this happens it's my fault, because I'm responsible. We tried to do it in the best way, we did a lot of work in this area because we saw it in (the) Arsenal (game), and it is really hard," Amorim said in a news conference.
"In the beginning of the game (against Forest), you suffer on the first play, it's really hard then to put energy in the team, but we managed to draw the game, and then in the second half the same thing."
Sporting Lisbon's Portuguese coach Ruben Amorim, 2024.
United's new head coach Ruben Amorim has plenty on his plate with his side's defensive woes. Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, Manchester City's struggles continued in a 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace.
Erling Haaland and Rico Lewis scored for City, who won in midweek but have lost four of their last six league games and twice trailed at a wet and windy Selhurst Park.
They remain fourth on 27 points, a point behind Chelsea and Arsenal and eight off Liverpool but having played a game more.
Daniel Munoz and Maxence Lacroix scored for Palace. City defender Lewis got their second equaliser in the 68th minute but was shown a red card in the 84th after a second booking.
Brentford extended their unbeaten home run with a 4-2 win over Newcastle United, while Aston Villa beat Southampton 1-0.
Liverpool, who lead the standings, were set to kick off the weekend action at Everton but the last ever Merseyside league derby at Goodison Park was postponed due to storm Darragh.
- RNZ Sport/Reuters
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