Duo are surprise contenders for player of season

SIX games for Nottingham Forest to save their season. Six games for someone to grab the cause by the scruff of the neck and haul the Reds over the line.

If you were going to bet on one player to do that it would be Morgan Gibbs-white. He thrives on being Forest’s main man, on having the responsibility of driving the team forward.

Just as he was in 2022-23, Gibbs-white has been superb. Perhaps his year has panned out as expected in that respect - he was always likely to be a key player again this term.

It would be no surprise if the 24-year-old is named the Reds’ player of the season. But few would have predicted some of the other potential contenders for the honour.

If you had looked into a crystal ball back in August and said Chris Wood and Neco Williams might be in with a shout of that title, you would have got short shrift. In fact, it might have been said you were in need of a lie down.

Williams could have gone out on loan last summer. He was seen as a player with potential but had been in and out of the side during his first year at the club. Leeds United were interested in taking him, before they signed ex-forest loanee Djed Spence.

Wood, meanwhile, had still yet to convince at that point. His loan from Newcastle United had turned permanent and questions were being asked of the £15m fee - not without some justification, given he had scored one goal in seven appearances at the back end of the 2022-23 campaign.

Fast forward a little less than a year and both Wood and Williams are likely to be mainstays of the starting 11 for the run-in. They are both in fine form.

Wood has 13 goals for the season so far, has scored in four successive games and has found the net 10 times since Nuno Espirito Santo took charge in December. The Reds would be lost without his goals. Taiwo Awoniyi is getting closer to a comeback but might well find himself on the bench when he does return.

Among the substitutes is where World Cup winner Gonzalo Montiel finds himself - and it seems unlikely he will shift Williams from the team, unless it is an enforced change. Williams has just picked up back-toback Forest player of the month awards.

Even if he doesn’t win the overall season title, the Welshman has to go down as one of the squad’s most improved players. Not so long ago, he was seen very much as a wingback; there was a debate over whether he could play as a fullback. He has put that one to bed.

Both Wood and Williams have provided emphatic answers to any questions about their roles and have responded to any doubters.

Even in a difficult campaign, the Reds have a few contenders for player of the season - and those two must surely be in the running.

Not a sentence many would have expected to come across last summer.