Forest say goodbye to Clough with a win

Nottingham Forest 2 West Ham 1

The name of Marlon King will never compare with the likes of Trevor Francis, Peter Shilton and John McGovern in terms of Forest folklore, but it is the striker who is the toast of Nottingham tonight after his stunning goal ensured the celebrations of Brian Clough’s life were treated to the perfect finale.

The majority of the Forest side which won back-to-back European Cups under Clough was applauded around the City Ground before kick-off, but Marlon Harewood’s second-half goal had looked sure to provide a sad end to an emotional day.

But Forest, without a league win all season until today, dramatically hit back with two goals in the last 10 minutes to delight those fans decked out in green in honour of the great man.

With Forest running out of ideas, it took a moment of inspiration from Paul Evans to change the course of the game.

After winning a yard of space with neat footwork 25 yards from goal he despatched an unstoppable shot with flashed past Stephen Bywater into the bottom corner.

To avoid defeat would have presumably have been enough to send the Forest fans home happy, but after King’s wonderful right-foot effort curled inside the far corner two minutes into injury-time they were sent into raptures.

“Two-one, to the Brian Clough,” they sang as they lingered long after the final whistle.

It had all looked very different after Harewood opened the scoring midway through the half.

The striker had already had served notice of his threat on the stroke of half-time when he scorched the Forest crossbar after his pace left Jon Olav Hjelde trailing.