Nottingham Forest 3-1 Fulham: Magical Morgan Gibbs-White inspires hosts to victory as first-half blitz lifts Nuno Espirito Santo’s side clear of drop zone

Morgan Gibbs-White was the inspiration as Nottingham Forest equalled their biggest win of the season – turning the formbook on its head to climb away from the bottom three.

Gibbs-White assisted and scored in a rampant first half for Forest who had been thrashed 5-0 by Fulham earlier in the season.

Starting the evening out of the relegation zone only on goal difference, Forest made a mockery of their recent run of one victory in 13 matches in all competitions whilst their opponents had scored 10 goals in four games.

Whilst the normally reserved Nuno Espirito hugged his coaching staff, his Portuguese compatriot Marco Silva had a face like thunder and hooked three of his players after just half-an-hour already 2-0 behind.

The breakthrough arrived after nine minutes when Gibbs-White produced a clever turn in the middle of the park and released a perfectly-weighted pass to Callum Hudson-Odoi with the outside of his boot.

Morgan Gibbs-White was in supreme form in a first half where Nottingham Forest raced away 

The 24-year-old calmly slotted past Bernd Leno in first-half stoppage time to put the home side three up

Nottingham Forest moved three points clear of Luton in 17th place ahead of the Hatters’ trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal on Wednesday

The winger showed composure to cut inside Kenny Tete and drill a low finish into Bernd Leno’s bottom corner.

A raucous City Ground had lift-off and second goal wasn’t long in coming.

Murillo stepped out of defence after 19 minutes and slipped a pass to Chris Wood who shifted his body goalward on the edge of the Fulham box.

Leno expected the striker to play in Anthony Elanga who was darting forward but instead Wood hit an early shot that completely fooled the goalkeeper. He stayed rooted to the spot as the ball found the net.

It was Wood’s ninth goal in 12 games – a vital contribution in the continued absence of injured Taiwo Awoniyi.

Silva took the unusual step of making a triple change after 33 minutes, introducing Willian, Tom Cairney and Adama Traore for Sasa Lukic, Alex Iwobi and Harry Wilson, the latter being taunted by chants for “Derby reject” from Forest fans as he trudged off.

Any immediate uptick Silva was searching for was undone in first-half injury-time.

Again, Gibbs-White was involved with a driving run from midfield and pass into Danilo. This time, the midfielder kept moving and became the beneficiary as Danilo’s return pass allowed him to slip a low finish comfortably past Leno.

Fulham’s forlorn players could have anticipated a rollocking from Silva during the interval and there was definite improvement in the second period, buoyed by the knowledge they’d fought back from 3-1 down at Sheffield United on Saturday to salvage a point.

With Forest appealing a four-point deduction handed down for PSR breaches, there were always going to be jitters once Fulham had grabbed a goal back after 49 minutes.

Hudson-Odoi got Forest off to the perfect start with a curling effort in the ninth minute

Chris Wood’s clever finish extended his fine goalscoring run to nine goals in 12 appearances

Marco Silva turned to his bench after only 30 minutes and made three changes, having been displeased with his side’s performance

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side extended their unbeaten run to three games following the win

Tosin Adarabioyo got in front of Gibbs-White to head in Andreas Pereira’s corner and they applied serious pressure for the rest of the evening with Forest ‘keeper Matz Sels making blinding saves from Willian and Adarabioyo again.

The tension was evident on Forest’s bench sub goalkeeper Matt Turner was booked for a number complaints including a challenge by Antonee Robinson on Neco Williams not resulting in a penalty.

Williams also thundered a shot against the bar in a pulsating game – the 15th time Forest have hit the woodwork this season.