FOOTBALL – Nottingham Forest maintained their Champions League push with a comfortable 4-2 win at Ipswich Town in the Premier League yesterday as champions Manchester City could only muster a 2-2 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion.
Everton stretched their unbeaten league run to nine games with a 1-1 draw against West Ham United while Wolverhampton Wanderers beat bottom side Southampton 2-1 to take a giant step towards Premier League survival, and Brentford beat Bournemouth 2-1 in a mid-table clash.
Anthony Elanga struck twice for Forest, who consolidated third place in the table on 54 points, five ahead of Chelsea, who have a game in hand and visit second-placed Arsenal on Sunday, and six points clear of City whose draw left them fifth.
Forest, who were involved in relegation battles in the last two seasons, struck three times in a frantic seven-minute spell in the first half, kicked off by a fierce strike from defender Nikola Milenkovic.
Elanga netted a curling effort two minutes later, and immediately doubled his tally when he latched onto a long ball from Milenkovic and squeezed his shot under goalkeeper Alex Palmer.
“We got this moment right,” Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo said. “We got Ipswich unbalanced and we took advantage of it.”
Jens Cajuste pulled one back in the 82nd minute to briefly give home fans hope, but Jota Silva quickly crushed it with another Forest goal before George Hirst claimed a consolation for Ipswich in added time.
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