Hasselbaink woe goes on as Forest fire

JAMIE WARD earned Nottingham Forest a place in the fourth round as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s winless run extended to seven games.

Forest are now unbeaten in nine matches thanks to Ward’s closerange finish following fine work from Oliver Burke. ‘We are pleased, because we played a few players who have not played in a long time, in Gary Gardner and Chris Cohen and Oliver Burke, who was starting only his third game,’ said Freedman.

QPR were struggling to cope with the pace of 18-year-old Burke when he ran at them and, when the winger let off the shackles again, it led to the opening goal in the 24th minute.

His speed opened up a huge gap in defence, which he arrowed into down the right side, before firing a shot across the face of goal, where Ward was arriving to steer it over the line from a few feet out.

‘Oliver is going to be a wonderful player for this club, as long as he keeps his feet on the floor and as long as I see him in the afternoon at the training ground, continuing to stay behind to do a bit of extra stuff,’ said Freedman.

There was not so much joy for Hasselbaink, however, who said: ‘The way we are going to get a win is through working together, believing together and being a team. It is not to do with what we can or can’t achieve in the January transfer window.’

Forest substitute Henri Lansbury, who had been on the pitch for less than 20 minutes, suffered a serious looking injury when landing awkwardly after an aerial challenge. The midfielder was carried off with his leg in a brace, after being given oxygen.