Nottingham Forest 3-0 Preston North End: Grabban scores twice as Reds continue run

Lewis Grabban's first was his 50th goal in Forest colours

Nottingham Forest continued their ascent of the Championship table under boss Steve Cooper with a convincing win over Preston North End.

Lewis Grabban scored either side of Jack Colback's thunderous volley to provide the three points, lifting them to 14th, and brought the visitors down to earth after their impressive midweek win over leaders Bournemouth.

Grabban opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Brennan Johnson was felled by Ben Whiteman, although it took more than half an hour for the breakthrough.

It gave Forest a lift, and with four minutes to half-time they got a second when Colback's ferocious drive came on the back of a Philip Zinckernagel free-kick which was not cleared sufficiently.

Preston were arguably the better side after the break, with Whiteman testing Brice Samba, while Greg Cunningham prompted calls for a penalty after one raid into the box.

Yet it was the home team who made sure when Grabban scruffily guided his effort across the goalkeeper and off the post after Brennan Johnson's cut-back pinballed wildly.

Cooper has now seen his Forest side lose just once since taking over from Chris Hughton, and they ended a three-game winless run with a goal-difference boosting display.

He switched up the defence, moving to a back four, and it paid off with Forest looking defensively sound while the new system got the best out of wide-running Wales winger Johnson and striker Grabban, who has now scored in back-to-back games.

Preston, meanwhile, had won consecutive games, but that run came to an end at the City Ground despite enjoying chances.

Brad Potts forced Samba into work with the game goalless, and he and Whiteman would have further efforts denied.

Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper:

"It was a good win, it was great to score three goals and keep a clean sheet. I like the fact that we were ruthless in the key moments when we got into scoring positions.

"I actually think that, in terms of general play, we have played better in other games which we have not won. We played better against Fulham I thought, which sounds daft when you consider we lost that game 4-0.

"But I like the fact that when we were not keeping the ball as well as I would have liked, we still did not look like conceding."

Preston boss Frankie McAvoy:

"Losing Patrick [Bauer - defender] 20 minutes into the game didn't help us. But goals change games, along with decisions. I have seen their penalty back and I understand why the referee has given it but it doesn't look like there is much contact there at all.

"We didn't defend well enough, the three goals were all poor ones to concede. We were shot shy and didn't do enough in the final third. We changed it 10 minutes into the second half when we went to a back four and played with three up top. But after that we somehow managed to have even less of a threat. We had more of the ball, we had more possession in the game but we just didn't do enough with it.

"In the first half we were sloppy with the ball and we didn't match runners enough. We did not do enough overall. At the end of the day, it was just disappointing all round."