Nottingham Forest have recorded back-to-back home wins for the first time since November with a 3-0 victory over relegation-threatened Barnsley at The City Ground.
Lee Tomlin, Ben Brereton and Apostolos Vellios got the goals for Aitor Karanka’s side as the visitors gained no ground on 21st placed Bolton Wanderers in the race for survival.
Barnsley started the match with early zip and George Moncur curled an effort over the bar from the edge of the box.
The home side soon warmed to the task and Matty Cash forced good stop from Barnsley keeper Jack Walton with a sharp strike on the turn before Forest took the lead when Tomlin curled in a sublime effort from 20 yards.
At the other end, The Reds keeper Stefanos Kapino had to get down to palm Oliver McBurnie’s shot to safety before opposite number Walton did wonderfully well to pick an Adlene Guedioura effort out of the top corner.
Forest were to take a two-goal lead into the break and when Brereton beat the offside trap, the youngster dribbled the ball around Walton before tapping into an empty net.
The Barnsley players had clearly received a telling off in the dressing room at half time and Adam Hammill and Connor Mahoney both had efforts on goal early in the second half, although neither troubled Kapino in the Forest goal.
Substitute Ben Osborn’s training ground free-kick routine was then deflected over at the other end before Kieffer Moore’s curling effort for Barnsley had Kapino worried as it flew just wide of the far post.
The visitors were struggling to find a way of testing the Forest keeper with defender Liam Lindsay heading a good chance wide when he met a corner kick unmarked. They were then lucky to still have a glimmer of hope minutes later when Cash’s shot thundered off the post.
Barnsley were almost back in the match 12 minutes from time when Mamadou Thiam’s powerful strike was saved by Kapino but McBurnie just couldn’t connect with the loose ball with his back to goal.
Gary Gardner’s caused no problems for Kapino before Forest made sure of the win in the final minute of the match when Joe Lolley wriggled away from the Barnsley defence and while Walton was equal to his chipped shot, teammate Vellios was on hand to fire in the rebound to cap off a deserved three points for the home side.
