Hughton lands head Forest role while Cork City part company with O’Connor

CHRIS HUGHTON has been appointed as the new manager of Nottingham Forest.

The Championship club had the former Irish international lined up to replace Sabri Lamouchi, announcing his departure before releasing the news that Hughton was their new boss.

He had been out of work since his sacking from Brighton at the end of the 2018/’19 campaign.

The 61-year-old had been linked with various roles in the intervening period but has opted to return to the game with a Forest side that has suffered a terrible run of form since the lockdown with their promotion campaign derailing in catastrophic circumstances.

Forest have lost all four of their league games in the new season.

A 2-1 home defeat to Bristol City on Saturday was Lamouchi’s final game in charge.

He was appointed in June 2019 after Martin O’Neill’s departure and won 20 of his 55 games.

The club said Lamouchi’s contract had “been terminated with immediate effect”.

Hughton will link up with Irish internationals Harry Arter and Cyrus Christie with his new employer.

“Nottingham Forest are delighted to announce the appointment of Chris Hughton as the club’s new manager,” a club statement read.

“Hughton joins the club with a wealth of managerial experience, leading both Newcastle United and Brighton to promotion from the Championship and going on to establish both teams in the Premier League.”

Parted

Closer to home, relegation-threatened Cork City have parted company with key player Daire O’Connor with five games to go in the league season.

O’Connor was substituted in the first half of last Saturday’s defeat to St Patrick’s Athletic which leaves Neale Fenn’s side bottom of the table and the Cork boss announced at his weekly press conference that the winger had left the club.

It has raised fresh questions about the state of affairs at Turner’s Cross with Fenn saying O’Connor departed because he was told that he wouldn’t feature for the rest of the run-in.

In a social media post, the Wicklow man said he was “disappointed to leave such a great club – especially with such important games coming up”.

Cork City are two points behind Finn Harps with a game in hand but that back fixture is the visit of Dundalk next week and before then they face an away date with second-placed Bohemians on Friday.