By Victor Kanayo
Nigeria’s Super Eagles ace Taiwo Awoniyi was the hero for Nottingham Forest as his lone goal condemned bottom-placed Southampton to another English Premier League (EPL) defeat on Wednesday night at St Mary’s stadium.
The only Forest goal in that pulsating encounter was Awoniyi’s fourth in the EPL season campaign. It was also first away victory of the season for EPL returnee club.
Though he later limped off in the 71st minute, Awoniyi scored the only goal of the encounter in the 27th minute from close range after an assist from Brennan Johnson.
Johnson played a huge role in the goal picking the ball just after the centre circle following an error by the Southampton defender and running several meters before releasing the crucial pass.
The Nigerian international who was named Man of the Match in the 1-1 draw against Chelsea over the weekend was lively in the entire match before being replaced by Sam Surridge.
The 25-year-old’s goal put an end to Forest’s run of 576 minutes (9 hours and 36 mins) without a Premier League away goal. The goal is their second away from home in league this season, 137 days since their previous away goal at Everton in August.
He was also named Man of the Match in a poll conducted by the club on Twitter.
He beat Brennan Johnson, Renan Lodi and Joe Worrall to the gong after picking up 45% of votes from a total of 3,780 fans.
The victory sees Forest move out of the relegation zone to the 15th spot, with 17 points from 18 league games.
In Seria A, the match between Napoli and Inter Milan ended 1-0 in favour of the later. Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen featured but failed to score.
In the other EPL game, Harry Kane scored two of Tottenham’s four second-half goals after they eventually cruised to a Premier League win over Crystal Palace.
Kane’s towering close-range header from Ivan Perisic’s cross was the first time Spurs had led 1-0 in a game since 15 October. They had conceded the first goal in all 10 games in between.
He then drilled a low second into the bottom corner from Bryan Gil’s pass.
Kane, making his 300th Premier League appearance, had a hand in their next two goals too. First he found Son Heung-min, who picked out Matt Doherty to slot home.
Then he set Son away with a long ball forward with the South Korean smashing home, via a deflection, to end a 12-game scoreless run for club and country.
The England captain now has 198 goals in 300 Premier League games, 264 for Spurs and is within two of the great Jimmy Greaves at the top of the club’s goal charts.
