Nottingham Forest 3-0 Barnsley (EFL Championship) 25.01.22

A deflated Barnsley took on a rampant in-form Nottingham Forest who weren’t prepared to rest on their laurels after their derby win at the weekend.

The visitors actually asked the EFL to postpone the match at the City Ground on Monday with a number of injuries and covid concerns leaving them with just twelve fit players at pre-game training but without luck, the governing body was not persuaded to grant the South Yorkshire sides requests and Steve Cooper’s men were not prepared to go easy on their wounded opponent either.

Forest took an early lead after fifteen minutes when Keinan Davis got the better of Mads Juel Andersen who got caught in possession inside his own half, the Aston Villa loanee robbing the Danish defender to run through and calmly score his first in red and white past Bradley Collins in the Tykes goal.

The Reds looked to control possession and dominated large parts of the first half, but Callum Styles spurned a fantastic opportunity to equalise just ahead of the half hour, Devante Cole pulling back to the youngster who shot low into the bottom corner but Scott McKenna was well-placed on the goal-line to clear away the danger.

Yates might have made it 2-0 when his header from a corner was flicked over by the keeper for a corner, before Yates did make it two, Brennan Johnson crossing in from the left on 38 for the Lincoln born midfielder to slide home from close range.

The second half continued in very much the same vein as the first with Forest on top, a procession of possession football prior to Djed Spence out muscling his opponent on 72 to pull back to Brennan Johnson who made it three.

Ateef Konate was then given a debut as he came on for Johnson with just under ten minutes remaining, the youngster granted a cameo as Forest played out the game with ease of victory guaranteed, a late Xande Silva effort smashing the post, almost making it four.

Nottingham Forest: Samba, Spence, Cook, McKenna, Colback, Yates, Garner, Johnson (Konate 81), Grabban (Silva 78), Zinckernagel, Davis (Lowe 69).

Barnsley: Collins, Williams, Helik, Andersen, Moon (Vita 87), Palmer (Wolfe 81), Gomes, Styles, Adeboyejo, Cole, Leya (Bremang 81).

Venue: City Ground (27,504)

*Main image @NFFC the Reds celebrate Ryan Yates scoring the second goal of the game.