Fulham and Nottingham Forest marked the return of the Premier League with a five-goal thriller at City Ground, as the league returned for its first match week since Queen Elizabeth’s death.
Steve Cooper’s Forest went ahead early in the first half before Fulham scored three times in a span of six minutes to turn the game on its head. Forest managed to get one back but failed to find the equaliser going down 3-2 for their fourth defeat in a row leaving them in the relegation zone for another weekend.
Forest are second-bottom of the table with four points while Fulham, who came up from the Championship with Forest last season, moved up to sixth with 11 points.
The result could have been so different for the hosts. Taiwo Awoniyi gave Forest the perfect start when he headed them in front after 11 minutes from a Ryan Yates corner. They continued to dominate but failed to turn it into the all-important second goal.
Fulham then used the break to regroup and came back with vengence. Tosin Adarabioyo headed in the equaliser in the 54th minute to open the floodgates and three minutes later Joao Palhinha put the visitors in front to turn the tide.
Harrison Reed added his side’s third goal in the 60th minute as Forest’s porous defence was exposed again. They did manage to get one back in the 77th minute through Lewis O’Brien but ran out of time to find the equaliser despite late pressure.