December 26, (THEWILL) – Chris Wood returned to St James’ Park to shock his former club Newcastle United, scoring a superb hat-trick to condemn the Magpies to a 3-1 defeat against Nottingham Forest. The result marked Nuno Espirito Santo’s first English Premier League victory since taking charge of the Tricky Trees.
Despite Alexander Isak giving the hosts a controversial first-half lead from the penalty spot, Forest roared back inspired by the brilliance of Anthony Elanga and Morgan Gibbs-White. The duo carved open Newcastle on a counterattack in stoppage time, allowing Wood to tap home an equaliser on the stroke of halftime.
The New Zealand international grabbed his second shortly after the interval, turning Dan Burn and lifting the ball over Martin Dubravka. Wood completed his treble on the hour mark after racing through on goal to round the keeper and slot into an empty net.
The shock result blew the race for Champions League football wide open, with Newcastle on 29 points and in seventh place from the top four sides in the race. Boss Eddie Howe now faces an FA Cup grudge match against Sunderland in between daunting clashes in the League with Liverpool first, and followed by defending champions Manchester City.
After a poor start to this EPL campaign for Forest, Espirito Santo will be delighted to get off the mark with a first win. The performance and result provide Forest fans hope they can pull off another great escape from relegation this season.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
