Nottingham Forest head coach Nuno Espirito Santos has praised his players' fighting spirit in the very important win against West Ham yesterday at the London Stadium, the Reds’ first at the venue as they dedicated the victory to recuperating striker, Taiwo Awoniyi, NigeriaSoccernet.com writes.
Nottingham Forest secured a valuable victory, establishing a comfortable two-goal advantage courtesy of strikes in each half from Morgan Gibbs-White and Nikola Milenkovi?. Despite a late surge from West Ham, which saw Jarrod Bowen reduce the deficit as the clock ticked down, Forest held firm to claim all three points to put them firmly in place for a UEFA Champions League fight.
One memorable event that stood out was when Morgan Gibbs dedicated his first goal to Taiwo Awoniyi who was placed in an induced coma to be operated on following the intestine rupture injury against Leicester. The team then went on to show more support after the end of the game, lifting up his shirt in solidarity of the Nigerian star.
“Since the beginning of the preparations, T was on our minds due to the seriousness of the situation,” Nuno said in his post-match presser.
“The boys wanted to do it for T. Our final words were to give it a push and a go for T. He is someone we really admire, and his smile is contagious. We need him. The boys did it for him, and we are so proud", he added.
Awoniyi has made significant progress and in a stable condition as he continues rehabilitation but wont be involved in any games for the Forest until next season if all goes according to plan.
By Oluwadamilola Olaleye