Taiwo Awoniyi’s fourth Premier League goal of the season led Nottingham Forest to a big win and sank Southampton to a new season low following a 1-0 affair at St. Mary’s on Wednesday.
Brennan Johnson drove through the Saints’ back line and fed Awoniyi for a first-half goal and Nathan Jones’ hosts could not find an answer in 안전놀이터 losing their sixth-straight Premier League match of the season.
Southampton sits dead last in the Premier League with 12 points, last picking up a point in a 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Oct. 23. Saints have only won thrice this season, and are 1W-2D-10L since the calendar turned to September.
Forest, meanwhile, continues on its way up the table and sits 15th with 17 points. Steve Cooper’s Tricky Trees have three wins, four draws and two losses since a loss to Wolves on Oct. 15 dropped their record to 1W-2D-7L.
Nottingham Forest bought a whole lot of players at the start of the season, and their instant struggles led some to believe that manager Steve Cooper could be fired for failing to find success.
But perhaps club leadership knew it would take time for Forest to figure it out and Cooper has rewarded them by finding a good mix of players. If that was the plan all long — patience — then good for them.
The Tricky Trees have now collected 13 points and lost just twice since mid-October as Awoniyi, Renan Lodi, Willy Boly and several other “new faces” have found their way in his system.
Southampton, meanwhile, is in the early days of a big shift of its own. Firing Ralph Hasenhuttl has not led to instant success and manager Nathan Jones clearly needs some January pieces to steady the ship.
James Ward-Prowse and Kyle Walker-Peters were good in the loss but there have been predictable runs of inconsistency in a team as young as Southampton.