Leicester 1 Forest 3: Chris Wood downs old boss Steve Cooper with stunning double as high-flying visitors go FIFTH
CHRIS WOOD haunted former boss Steve Cooper with the goals that took Nottingham Forest fifth in the table.
It was the now-Leicester City manager Cooper who took Wood to Forest 16 months ago in a £15million deal from Newcastle.
Cooper may have known what he was doing – but he would not have seen this scenario coming.
The Kiwi striker struck in the space of 13 minutes after the break to make it a miserable reunion for Cooper – who was sacked by Forest last December.
And the travelling City Ground fans did not let him forget it at this East Midlands derby – as they revived a chant from his days on Trentside.
They sang: ‘Stevie Cooper, he hates the Leicester, he hates the Derby, Forest are magic’.
Forest had taken the lead through home-grown skipper Ryan Yates – only for Jamie Vardy to level the scores.
But it was Wood, 32, who had the final say as he scored for the third game running to make it seven for the season as Forest gatecrashed the top six.
Cooper will be furious with his side’s defending though – as Leicester made mistakes for all three of Forest’s goals.
The Foxes boss was reluctant to talk about his City Ground spell in the build up to the game – and only mentioned them once once in a paragraph near to the end of his programme notes.
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Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo was serving the second game of a three-match touchline ban and sat at the back of the main stand with the Forest analysts as his side clinched their second win in five days.
The Portuguese coach saw Forest take a 16th minute lead when Yates made the most of a series of defensive errors.
Facundo Buonanotte misplaced a pass and when the ball came back into the Leicester box from Elliot Anderson, James Justin sliced his clearance to Yates to net from the edge of the area.
But the Foxes levelled just seven minutes later as Vardy displayed his poacher instincts.
Harry Winks delivered an ideal cross into the six yard box – and Vardy got in ahead of Murillo to grab his fourth goal of the season after a superb team move.
But Forest should have regained the lead just moments later as Foxes keeper Mads Hermansen made a point blank save from Nicolas Dominguez.
Hermansen made another crucial save nine minutes before the break when the Dane produced a flying stop to keep out a long range effort from Callum Hudson-Odoi.
It was end to end stuff and Stephy Mavididi almost put Leicester ahead in first half stoppage time when he curled a shot just wide of the far post.
But Forest went ahead just one minute after the restart.
Again, Leicester were at fault with Winks losing the ball with the Foxes in little danger.
It was Anderson once more who took advantage and slid the ball in for Wood to turn and fire home just out of Hermansen’s reach as the ball squeezed in.
The goal put Forest in control, and Hudson-Odoi almost made it three when he swept a shot against the post – with Anderson putting the rebound wide.
But Leicester shot themselves in the foot yet again on the hour when they gifted Wood his second of the game.
Belgium defender Wout Faes appeared to have a long ball from Forest keeper Matz Sels under control – but when he mis-timed his header back to Hermansen, Wood nipped in to finish the job.
Wood was subbed as Forest saw out the game – wary of Leicester’s comeback at Southampton last weekend.
But the Foxes looked a beaten side after Forest’s third goal.
Forest fans continued to taunt Cooper in the final stages with a chant of: “Take them down, take them down Stevie Cooper”.
In contrast, Leicester fans booed their team off at the final whistle.