SUNDERLAND, England, April 24 : Nottingham Forest cranked up the pressure on their relegation rivals by thrashing Sunderland 5-0 in the Premier League on Friday, moving eight points clear of the drop zone.
Trai Hume’s 17th‑minute own goal opened the floodgates, with Chris Wood, Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus all finding the net in a six-minute first-half burst at the Stadium of Light. Elliot Anderson capped off the win with a goal in stoppage time.
The victory gave Vitor Pereira’s 16th-placed Forest – who are unbeaten in six successive league games – 39 points with four games to play. It puts more pressure on West Ham United, who are 17th on 33 points, and Tottenham Hotspur, who are 18th on 31 points. Both West Ham and Spurs play this weekend.
Compounding Sunderland’s misery, Dan Ballard’s second-half goal was chalked off after VAR determined that Nordi Mukiele tripped goalkeeper Matz Sels.
Forest’s goalkeeper preserved the clean sheet with a terrific late save, stretching to tip Enzo Le Fee’s blistering close-range strike over the bar.
The game was end-to-end in the opening minutes with decent chances for both sides before Forest broke the deadlock when Omari Hutchinson floated a ball from a corner to the far post for Igor Jesus to head towards goal. The ball pinged off the head of Hume on the way in for an own goal.
Wood struck in the 31st minute when Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs inexplicably passed the ball straight into his path. The ball bounced off the striker and fell to Gibbs-White, who drew Roefs out of his net before passing it back to Wood to slot home.
Gibbs-White added a goal of his own three minutes later when a ball to the back post found Jesus who headed it down for the midfielder, who unleashed a powerful shot into the bottom corner.
Jesus had the visiting fans in raptures when he knocked the ball into the far corner three minutes later, the ball glancing off Roef’s outstretched arm on the way in. Sunderland, who conceded four goals in a 4-3 loss to Aston Villa on Sunday, were booed off the pitch at the break.
Forest’s victory comes five days after they scored four second-half goals to beat Burnley 4-1.
“It’s quite special,” Gibbs-White told Sky Sports. “I didn’t think we could top the other day, but we go and do it. I think that’s just credit to the boys, and shows the character in the dressing room and the belief and the confidence that we have right now going into games.”
Anderson had missed Forest’s Europa League quarter-final win over Porto earlier this month after the death of his mother Helen.
“Just really happy to score here and I just know that my mum would have been really proud of that one,” he said.
