Nottingham Forest made lightwork of Premier League basement boys Southampton to continue their excellent start to the season.
Forest raced into a 3-0 lead in the first half after a first goal in red for Elliot Anderson was followed up by Callum Hudson-Odoi and prolific forward Chris Wood.
Southampton pulled one back shortly before the hosts thought they had a fourth of the afternoon at the City Ground but the celebrations were short-lived after Nikola Milkenkovic’s header was controversially ruled out.
The away side pulled back another one in second half stoppage time to make it a slightly nervier end than anticipated, but Forest held on and recorded another win.
It would’ve been a near-perfect afternoon for Nuno Espirito Santo apart from the fact that Hudson-Odoi was forced to withdraw from the pitch just after the half hour mark with an injury.
He was given a standing ovation after a fantastic display, capped off by a beautiful goal, and it was what the Forest owner did at half time that spoke volumes about the winger’s impact.
Nottingham Forest owner visits Hudson-Odoi after injury scare
As Hudson-Odoi came off the pitch to a standing ovation at the City Ground, he appeared to be holding his groin.
It was a sad end for someone who looked like a constant threat every time he was on the ball and no doubt leaving the Southampton defenders nightmares for days.
The camaraderie from top to bottom at Forest is something else to see and nothing epitomised that more than Evangelos Marinakis’ actions at half time.
As per Sky Sports’ Gail Davis, Marinakis went down to the changing room at half time to visit Hudson-Odoi and check up on the wideman.
She said: “When Hudson-Odoi came off he holding his groin – and the Nottm Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis popped down at half-time to see him.”
Marinakis is well-known for greeting the players in the tunnel at full-time for each game and whilst there has been no update on the former England Under-21 international at the time of writing, there are hopes it’s not as bad as first feared.
- READ MORE: Evangelos Marinakis in fresh talks over Nottingham Forest stadium development plans after twist
Callum Hudson-Odoi’s stats vs Southampton
His time on the pitch may have been short, but boy was it sweet.
The 24-year-old’s 38-minute cameo was one of the best of the day in the East Midlands and he was deservedly on the scoresheet.
Himself and Anderson seemingly wanted a goal of the season contest but that’s a debate for another day.
| Callum Hudson-Odoi stats vs Southampton |
| Minutes played – 38 |
| Goals – 1 |
| Key passes – 1 |
| Pass completion rate – 16/17 (94%) |
| Sofascore rating – 7.5 |
He was near-perfect with his passing, averaging a plus 90 per cent completion rate, as well as a key pass.
Had he been able to complete the full game, there’s every chance he would’ve added to his tally and caused the visitors more problems.
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