Nottingham Forest 3-1 Brentford: Wood and Ndoye fire past Brentford | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood and Dan Ndoye ensured a 3-1 victory over Brentford in a thrilling game of two halves, giving the Reds the best possible start to the season.

Nuno Espírito Santo’s side went 3-0 up at the end of the first half, but a penalty conversion from Igor Thiago disrupted hopes of an opening weekend clean sheet.

Brentford lost manager Thomas Frank and talisman Bryan Mbeumo, and had to make do with Keith Andrews’ restructured squad.

Forest broke into the top five behind Liverpool, as Brentford require a different approach next time round against Aston Villa, as they sank to 17th in the Premier League standings.

As it happened

It was in the first five minutes of the game when Nottingham Forest clearly held the upper hand, beginning with a powerful statement by dominating the attacking front.

Chris Wood scored an outstanding goal from a corner in no less than five minutes. The New Zealand international gathered the ball, landing perfectly at his feet, before instinctively lobbing it over Caoimhin Kelleher to give Forest an encouraging start to their first game of the season.

In the dying embers of the first half, there was a wondergoal by Dan Ndoye, after Morgan Gibbs-White made a shrewd pass into the box, finding Ndoye with immaculate timing.

The Swiss international launched into a flying header, placing the ball in the top left corner past the goalkeeper to secure a two-goal cushion.

Just three minutes later, on the stretch of injury time, Wood tactfully got himself on the receiving end of a pass from Elliot Anderson, who collected the ball calmly before slipping it through.

Wood rounded the goalkeeper to slot it into the net, giving Nottingham Forest a commanding 3-0 lead.

The tide almost turned in Brentford’s favour in the second half, when Brentford looked to have gained a firmer grasp on the game. Just as all efforts proved futile, a Forest handball gave the Bees a fortunate penalty kick.

Igor Thiago calmly converted, slotting the ball past Matz Sels, but it wasn’t enough to spark a comeback. Nottingham Forest walked away with the victory and three points, kicking off their Premier League campaign in style.

The lineups

NFO: Sels; Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, Williams; Sangaré, Anderson; Ndoye, Gibbs-White, Hudson-Odoi; Wood

BRE: Kelleher; Kayode, Collins, van den Berg, Henry; Yarmoliuk, Jensen; Lewis-Potter, Milambo, Carvalho; Igor Thiago