Wycombe Wanderers 0-3 Nottingham Forest: Glenn Murray scores twice for Reds
- Published
Glenn Murray's early goal on his second Forest appearance was his first this season, having failed to score in six appearances while on loan at Watford
Veteran striker Glenn Murray scored twice on his full debut as Nottingham Forest earned a clinical victory over bottom-of-the-table Wycombe Wanderers.
The 37-year-old showed typical composure to produce an exquisite lob over keeper Ryan Allsop for his opener after seven minutes.
Wycombe responded impressively, with their aerial threat and power from set-pieces causing plenty of alarm and forcing Forest to defend for much of the rest of the first half.
But the Reds, who have now lost just once in their past 10 Championship matches, held firm and went 2-0 up when Murray won and converted a penalty, with Anthony Knockaert crashing in a third.
Wycombe were unfortunate to be trailing at the break having seen Uche Ikpeazu go close on three occasions and also have a headed effort ruled out for offside.
However, the Reds dominated the second period to ensure a third consecutive away win for Chris Hughton's side and leave Wycombe still 12 points from safety, albeit with games in hand on all the sides above them apart from Rotherham.
Murray's early strike showed just why Hughton was keen to be reunited with a man who served him so well when he was Brighton manager, the striker using his knowhow to get on the wrong side of centre-back Josh Knight before netting.
Knockaert so nearly added a second when he cut inside in trademark style and hit an awkward, low left-foot shot that keeper Allsop turned onto the post.
Wycombe, who have now lost four and drawn one of their previous five games against the Reds and have managed just three wins and 18 goals in 27 league matches, then got on top but were second best in the second half.
Ikpeazu did have an overhead kick well saved by Brice Samba, but Murray cleverly got in behind the home defence for a second time, drawing a foul by Knight and scoring from the spot.
With Forest now in full control, substitute Joe Lolley went close to scoring with his first touch before teeing up Knockaert to round off a solid display and take Forest four points above the relegation zone.
Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth told BBC Three Counties Radio:
"We made more mistakes than Nottingham Forest, that's the key to the game today. Three-nil looks worse than it was and I thought we were the better team in the first half, if I'm being honest.
"The referee gives that penalty - it's a real soft penalty and that changes the game. It gives them the impetus to go and play more expansive football.
"The third goal's a fantastic finish from Knockaert and you've got to give him credit for that, but the first two goals were our mistakes. We've got to eradicate that because, as I keep saying, at this level you get punished."
Forest boss Chris Hughton:
"We were good at times but I think we could have been better. These type of games can be quite frantic and competitive, and we needed to make sure that in those periods we showed more composure. I think we did that, but I think we still could have done better.
"We had to dig deep. We're up against a team that have great qualities about them. We know they're direct up front and you have to battle against them.
"I think the clean sheet was important. As the game opened up we felt that there would be chances and we were able to capitalise on them. Glenn (Murray) is a model professional that enjoys scoring goals,"