Gary Rowett's Stoke beat Derby 2-1 and West Brom win at Swansea
Thursday 29 November 2018 08:17, UK
Tammy Abraham grabbed four goals for Aston Villa in a dramatic 5-5 Sky Bet Championship draw against 10-man Nottingham Forest.
Forest, though, deserved a point from the 10-goal thriller to take them into the top six after a spectacular display of attacking football.
To their credit, Forest were always on the front foot and set the tone of the game with goals from Lewis Grabban and Jose Carvalho in the opening six minutes. Villa were equally emphatic with Abraham scoring twice in three minutes to level the scoreline after only 14 minutes.
With both defences caught napping, Matt Cash regained a 22nd-minute lead for Forest only for Abraham to slot away a 36th-minute penalty to complete his hat-trick. The goal of the game came in the 51st minute from Joe Lolley with a superb shot from 35 yards that spectacularly whistled into the net.
Forest could not retain their advantage as Abraham notched his fourth after 71 minutes before substitute Anwar El Ghazi grabbed a fifth goal for Villa, which was then cancelled out by Grabban eight minutes from time.
Gary Rowett was able to celebrate victory against his former club as goals from Sam Clucas and Tom Ince earned 10-man Stoke a 2-1 win over local rivals Derby in an ill-tempered clash at the bet365 Stadium.
Midfielder Clucas opened the scoring midway through the first half for Stoke, who had Peter Etebo sent off before the break for a challenge on Richard Keogh.
Frank Lampard's visitors were level five minutes following on from the restart when Harry Wilson struck a curled free-kick. But Clucas then turned provider for the Potters winner, crossing for former Derby man Ince to finish from inside the penalty area with 25 minutes to play, which earned three points for boss Rowett against the club he left in May.
West Brom continued their upturn in form with a 2-1 win at Swansea that took them to fourth place in the Sky Bet Championship.
Central defenders Craig Dawson and Ahmed Hegazi punished slack Swansea set-piece marking to hand Albion their third consecutive victory.
Birmingham earned a hard-fought 2-0 win over 10-man Millwall at The Den to close the gap to the Sky Bet Championship play-off places, and Bristol City ended a four-game losing run by coming from behind to win 3-2 at bottom club Ipswich.
Goals from Gary Roberts, James Vaughan from the penalty spot and Callum McManaman saw Wigan beat Blackburn 3-1 at the DW Stadium.
