Nottingham Forest produced another devastating first-half display to thrash Sunderland 5-0 at the Stadium of Light, pulling eight points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.
Sunderland began brightly and fashioned the game’s first opening, but Chris Rigg’s effort lacked power and was comfortably dealt with by Matz Sels.
That proved a false dawn for the hosts, who were blown away before the break in a ruthless Forest performance.
The breakthrough arrived in the 17th minute when Igor Jesus’ header struck Trai Hume and deflected into the net for an own goal.
Forest doubled their lead just after the half-hour mark following a costly error, as goalkeeper Robin Roefs gifted possession to Chris Wood, who combined with Morgan Gibbs-White before finishing calmly.
The visitors tightened their grip minutes later, with Gibbs-White firing home after being picked out by Jesus, continuing his red-hot scoring streak.
Sunderland’s collapse deepened before half-time when Ola Aina’s deflected effort fell kindly for Jesus, who smashed in a first-time volley to make it four.
Any slim hopes of a response after the restart were quickly dashed. Dan Ballard thought he had reduced the deficit with a header, but the goal was ruled out following a VAR review for a foul in the build-up.
Forest largely controlled proceedings thereafter, despite creating little in the second half, and added further gloss in stoppage time when Elliot Anderson converted their only shot after the interval.
The result extends Forest’s unbeaten run to eight matches in all competitions and marks another step towards survival, while Sunderland slump to a fourth home defeat in five games, leaving them 11th and still searching for consistency.
