O’NEILL HAILS SUPER-SUB CARVALHO
MANAGER Martin O’Neill hailed a “big win” as Nottingham Forest heightened their play-off ambitions with victory over Hull.
Forest are now just two points off the top six thanks to an ultimately convincing triumph at the City Ground.
There had been little to choose between the two sides in a scrappy first half, but Forest cut loose after the restart by scoring three times in quick succession.
O’Neill said: “We’re in the (play-off) battle. It’s still a long road, but the players have a lot of confidence.
“These next two games (at home to Aston Villa and away to Ipswich) are big for us before the international break, but at least that’s another three points and that’s four consecutive victories here and it was a big win.”
Substitute Joao Carvalho’s exceptional longrange strike gave the hosts a 72ndminute lead from which Hull could not recover.
Fellow sub Karim Ansarifard made it 2-0 just four minutes later, before Joe Lolley added gloss to the scoreline from the penalty spot.
O’Neill was especially thrilled with Carvalho’s contribution as Forest ended a run of five consecutive home defeats to Hull.
He said: “The game was drifting and needed a spark, which was provided by Joao. It was a magnificent goal to win it – that got us going. I was ecstatic about the goal, and he was as well.”
Yohan Benalouane and Tendayi Darikwa popped speculative efforts off target within the first five minutes.
Hull were hardly foot-perfect, either, but they at least grew in confidence as the match progressed. And they had a rare glimpse on goal after 18 minutes when Jarrod Bowen scuffed a shot wide.
At the other end, Reece Burke blocked Leo Bonatini’s effort, before Reds goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon was equal to Kamil Grosicki’s shot. Counterpart David Marshall needed to be even brighter soon after the restart to tip Alexander Milosevic’s downward header out of harm’s way.
Forest sent on Carvalho and Ansarifard and it was the Portuguese who dramatically gave Forest the lead, letting fly with an exceptional rightfooted effort which kissed both posts before finding the net.
Hull hardly had time to regroup as Ansarifard made it 2-0 after 76 minutes. Lolley did all the hard work with a wellflighted strike which hit the bottom-right post and Ansarifard was well positioned to gather the rebound to made no mistake.
Lolley added a third from the spot when Markus Henriksen fouled Jack Colback in the box.
Hull have now lost four away games on the spin, but manager Nigel Adkins refused to rule out an increasingly improbable tilt at the play-offs. He said: “Before the game we were four points off the play-offs and now we are five points.
“We kept the home crowd quiet for long periods, but maybe we didn’t have that final decisive pass in the final third.
“Sometimes it’s fine margins. The scoreline’s the wrong one, but for long periods we were well and truly in the game.
“We wanted to win, but you’ve got to go and score.”