Nottingham Forest vs Barnsley. Sky Bet Championship.
The City GroundAttendance23,633.
Tuesday 24 April 2018 23:27, UK
Nottingham Forest left Barnsley fighting for Championship survival as Aitor Karanka's side cruised to a comfortable 3-0 success at the City Ground.
Lee Tomlin scored a spectacular goal of his own, before setting up another for Ben Brereton, and sub Apostolos Vellios netted a late third, as Karanka dealt a severe blow to his old friend, Tykes boss Jose Morais, who he worked alongside at Real Madrid under Jose Mourinho.
Morais will hope that Karanka does provide a favour before the end of the season, however - as Forest face a trip to Bolton on the final day.
Barnsley keeper Jack Walton was a busy man, with Matty Cash forcing the first save of the game from him after turning neatly on the edge of the box before whipping a shot across the face of goal that was brilliantly pushed away.
Walton made rather simple work of saving a driven effort from Tomlin, from the edge of the box, as Forest made a confident start.
Cash was a lively figure down the right and when he controlled brilliantly, it gave him the chance to cut inside and dart across the face of the box, before simply feeding Tomlin.
He had the time and space to pick his spot and the on-loan Cardiff man did exactly that, finding the top corner with a delicious bending effort.
That goal came in the 26th minute and Walton was quickly called into action again to deny both Tomlin and Adlene Guedioura when they attempted audacious overhead kicks.
Stefanos Kapino did have to make a strong save, to parry a vicious strike from Oliver McBurnie. But it was Forest who were to double their advantage, as Tomlin split the Barnsley defence with a precise pass nine minutes before half-time, sending Brereton racing clear on goal. The 19-year-old rounded the keeper calmly, before slotting an equally composed finish into the back of the net.
A fine first half for Forest ended on a sour note when Spanish defender Juan Fuentes, who was making his debut, collected a serious looking injury from a committed challenge with Dimitri Cavare.
He received lengthy treatment which extended into the interval and it was no shock when he was replaced by Ben Osborn at the start of the second half. Osborn almost had an instant impact with a clever free-kick that dipped only a foot or so over, after taking a deflection.
Although Barnsley's own half-time substitute, Connor Mahoney, also flashed a shot wide - a powerful header from Liam Lindsay had the same outcome.
Forest continued to press with Cash driving a crisp strike into the side netting, with Walton beaten. But Kapino had to react smartly to block a crisp effort from Mahoney and again to deny Gary Gardner.
But two Forest subs combined to round things off in injury time, with Walton brilliantly denying Joe Lolley, only for Vellios to sweep home the rebound.
Aitor Karanka: "When you have been together; when you have worked at Real Madrid, you know that you have to try to win the game, regardless of who it is against, I cannot forget that we are friends, but I am defending the Forest badge. I need to win for this club and in every game, I will try to do my best.
"We could do him a favour on the final day against Bolton. But it would not be because I want to do him a favour - it would be because I want to do my best for Forest; I want to win every game. We need to finish the season as well as possible, to set us up well for the start of next season. We want to win both of our last two games."
Jose Morais: "When I looked at the quality of the team we were facing and the fact that they had no pressure, because they are in a different moment of the season, because they do not have anything to lose - their quality shone through. They were able to play in a positive way. We had a little bit more pressure, because it was a must-win game for us.
"This made the difference between the two teams, in terms of the intensity and the decision making. We are in the same position that we were in last Saturday. The task is more difficult now, because we need to win our games and hope and expect that the other teams around us lose."
