NOTTINGHAM, England (Reuters) -Brazilian Bruno Guimaraes netted twice as Newcastle United held off a spirited comeback from Nottingham Forest to win 3-2 at the City Ground in Saturday’s late Premier League game.
Both Newcastle’s first-half goals, scored by Guimaraes and Fabian Schar, came from set pieces, and the visitors struggled to deal with the pace of Forest’s counter-attack.
A clever corner from Miguel Almiron found Kieran Trippier, and his deep cross was brilliantly volleyed home by Guimaraes in the 10th minute.
Swedish winger Anthony Elanga netted for the hosts on the break in the 26th minute and though Newcastle’s Schar scored in the 44th, Callum Hudson-Odoi made it 2-2 deep into first-half stoppage time.
Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi had a goal ruled out for offside early in the second half and he was denied a penalty in when a long ball caught the Newcastle defence out, but his appeals were waved away as the contact with keeper Martin Dubravka was deemed incidental.
The decision proved pivotal as Guimaraes put the visitors in front for the third time with a brilliant solo goal, snapping up the ball on the edge of the box and rifling it into the bottom corner.
Having twice been pegged back, Newcastle made a number of defensive changes to batten down the hatches, and the closest Forest came to snatching an equaliser was a curling shot from Morgan Gibbs-White that whistled past the top corner.
Newcastle climbed to seventh in the table on 36 points while Forest are 16th, two points above the relegation zone.
“It’s massive for us, we’ve spoken a lot about doing the basics again and turning our performances into positive results. This is no easy place to come and we had to work for it,” Trippier said.
After a 4-4 draw with Luton Town last week and the loss of key players due to injury, Newcastle faced problems but the win over Forest re-ignited their hope of a top-four finish.
“Never say never, but it’s going to be tough. It’s been mixed emotions for us this season. It’s about finishing the season strong,” Trippier said.
“We have one game a week now and we’re getting players back fit, which is very important for us.”
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor, editing by Ed Osmond)
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