Awoniyi bags brace in Nottingham Forest 4-3 win over Southampton

Taiwo Awoniyi bagged a 3-minute brace to set Nottingham Forest on the way to a 4-3 win over Southampton on Monday night in the English Premier League.

Close range finishes in the 18th and 21st minute by Awoniyi lifted Forest spirit as they battled against a Southampton team sitting at the bottom of the log.

Carlos Alcaraz pulled one back for the Saints but Morgan Gibbs-white scored a 44th minute penalty to ensure Forest went into the break 3-1 up.

Six minutes after the restart, Southampton scored through Lyanco to spark periods of pressure on the Forest backline. Their resolve was broken when in-form Danilo scored for a third straight game to put Nottingham Forest 4-2 up.

Southampton Captain James Ward-Prowse then scored a late penalty for 4-3 but Forest held on to win and move up to 16th place on the English Premier League standings with three games to the end of the season.

Nigerian striker Paul Onuachu was a second half substitute for Southampton. The lanky forward came on for the final 14-minutes as the Saints suffered another loss to go eight points adrift of safety with 24-points.

Super Eagles stars Emmanuel Dennis and Joe Aribo were not listed for the match.