LOLLEY EYES UP THRILLER WITH VILLA
JOE LOLLEY is eyeing a date with his boyhood idols at Wembley – so he can smash their promotion dreams.
The 26-year-old Forest winger is an Aston Villa supporter and watched them as a teen, when Forest gaffer Martin O’Neill was in charge at Villa Park.
Stuttering Forest kept alive their top-six hopes with a fortunate 2-1 victory over Swansea, with Lolley adamant they must win five of their last seven games for a play-off spot.
Villa, meanwhile, have won five on the bounce to leave Lolley purring: “If both teams could go up, then great. Of course I enjoy seeing them do well but, I’ll be honest, if we beat them in the play-off final it would be absolutely brilliant.”
Forest are two points outside the top six shake-up and Lolley admits they are underdogs.
“There are five or six teams fighting for spots and a few will have good runs,” he said. “We need to win five of our last seven games for a realistic shot.”
Forest won it with headers from sub Daryl Murphy (above) and Molla Wague – both from Lolley corners – after George Byers’ shot was deflected into the net off Connor Roberts. “A loss would have been a big dent,” admitted Lolley. “We are the underdogs at the minute but hopefully we can go under the radar.”
Swansea top scorer Oli McBurnie returned after a month out but the Swans have now lost four on the bounce. “We are hurting,” McBurnie said. “We should be killing games off when we have the lead.” MOTM MOLLA WAGUE (N FOREST)
FOREST: Pantilimon 6, Darikwa 5, Wague 8, Benalouane 6, Osborn 7, Yates 5 (Pele 57, 7), Watson 5 (Carvalho 66, 6), Colback 6, Cash 6, Grabban 5 (Murphy 67, 7), Lolley 8.
SWANSEA: Nordfeldt 5, Roberts 5, Van der Hoorn 5, Carter-Vickers 5, Naughton 5, Byers 7 (BakerRichardson 84), Grimes 7, Dyer 6 (McKay 70, 5), Celina 5, James 8, McBurnie 7.
REF: Jeremy Simpson ATT: 28,469