Nottingham Forest piled the pressure on their relegation rivals by beating Sunderland 5-0 in the Premier League on Friday to move eight points clear of the drop zone.
Trai Hume’s own goal in the 17th minute opened the floodgates, with Chris Wood, Morgan Gibbs-White and Igor Jesus all finding the net in a six-minute first half at the Stadium of Light. Elliot Anderson capped off the win with a goal in stoppage time.
The win gave Vitor Pereira’s 16th-placed Forest, unbeaten in six consecutive league games, 39 points with four games to play. It puts more pressure on 17th-placed West Ham United (33 points) and 18th-placed Tottenham Hotspur (31 points). Both West Ham and Spurs play this weekend.
Adding to Sunderland’s woes, Dan Ballard’s second-half goal was disallowed after VAR determined Nordi Mukiele had tripped goalkeeper Matz Sels.
The Forest goalkeeper kept a clean sheet with a superb late save to tip Enzo Le Fee’s thrilling strike over the bar from close range.
The match went from start to finish in the opening minutes with decent chances for both sides, before Forest broke the deadlock when Omari Hutchinson floated a ball from a corner to the far post for Igor Jesus to head towards goal. The ball pinged off Hume’s head on its way in and set up an own goal.
Wood struck in the 31st minute when Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs inexplicably passed the ball straight into his path. The ball bounced back off the forward and fell to Gibbs-White, who pulled Roefs out of his net before passing it back to Wood for home plate.
Gibbs-White scored a goal himself three minutes later when a ball at the back post found Jesus, who headed the ball towards the midfielder, who unleashed a powerful shot into the bottom corner.
Jesus had the visiting fans in delight when he struck the ball into the far corner three minutes later, the ball sliding past Roef’s outstretched arm as he entered. Sunderland, who conceded four goals in a 4-3 defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday, were sent off at half-time.
Forest’s victory comes five days after they scored four second-half goals to beat Burnley 4-1.
“It’s very special,” Gibbs-White said Air sports. «I didn’t think we could overachieve the other day, but we’re going to do it. I think it’s just a credit to the boys, and it shows the character in the locker room and the belief and confidence we have now when we go to games.»
Anderson had missed Forest’s Europa League quarter-final win over Porto earlier this month following the death of his mother Helen.
“I’m just really happy to score here and I just know my mom would have been really proud of that,” he said.
Published on April 25, 2026
