Igor Jesus and Taiwo Awoniyi sparked a huge win for Nottingham Forest against Brentford.
The Reds took the lead in the 12th minute when Jesus controlled, turned and volleyed an unstoppable effort beyond Caoimhin Kelleher in the Brentford goal.
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Forest did the hard yards in the match against the Bees, who could have gone as high as fourth with a victory, with the defenders doing their job for a second successive clean sheet.
With the game edging towards the finale, Forest broke on the counter-attack through Awoniyi and, after holding off two unsuccessful challenges, slid the ball underneath the goalkeeper for 2-0.
After the game, James Perch spoke about Awoniyi, and he’s not sure he could believe that he’d scored in his own mind.
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The Nigerian returned to form with a brilliant cameo performance against the Bees, and his goal should do the world of good for his confidence.
Just days after Lorenzo Lucca joined the club, he would have watched on as both of the strikers at the City Ground went and scored in the same match.
Perch has admitted that he didn’t really think Awoniyi could believe it in his own mind that he’s scored.
He said on BBC Radio Nottingham: “It’s a really great finish from Taiwo and, being honest, he almost can’t believe it himself that he’s managed to score.”
Awoniyi needs more goals
For any striker not to score goals is a worry and Awoniyi will have been concerned by his lack of contributions over the last year.
In fairness, however, he’s been feeding largely off scraps in terms of minutes and he will be buzzing to get one against Brentford.
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Awoniyi might stick around at the club with Forest struggling to score goals and on this cameo, he’d be a useful player to have in the squad.
Lucca will know that he has to work hard to get in the Forest team and as Perch says, Awoniyi perhaps needs to have a bit more confidence in his own ability.
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