Dean Henderson’s mistake piled more misery on winless Crystal Palace as Chris Wood sealed victory for Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
The Palace goalkeeper, in front of watching interim England manager Lee Carsley, allowed Wood’s second-half strike to squirm under his arm.
Oliver Glasner’s Eagles remain in the Premier League’s bottom three, while Forest rise to eighth after their first home win of the season.
Eberechi Eze and Eddie Nketiah hit the woodwork for Palace, while Ryan Yates also nodded on to a post for the hosts.
Palace enjoyed the better of a bright opening and Eze went close before Nketiah’s fine 30-yard effort clipped the upright, but after a slow start Forest roused themselves and Elliott Anderson’s excellent run and shot forced Henderson into action.
Wood headed over before being denied by Jefferson Lerma on the line as Forest continued to create chances, and Yates’ header came back off the post after 22 minutes.
Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo – watching from the stands as he starts a three-game touchline ban – would have been encouraged, but Palace regrouped and Matz Sels turned Eze’s drive on to the bar after the break.
But Wood struck with 25 minutes left when he seized on Trevoh Chalobah’s clearance and his first-time effort from 20 yards crept under Henderson’s arm.
Sels then ensured Forest took all three points with another fine save, this time denying Jeffrey Schlupp with 10 minutes left.
Wood remains Forest’s Mr. Reliable
Nottingham Forest’s search for a striker took them to several targets in the summer, but they know they can rely on Chris Wood.
Nketiah, PSV’s Santiago Gimenez and Porto’s Galeno were all wanted, but Wood is Forest’s go-to man.
The forward became just the third player to score 20 or more goals for Forest in the Premier League with his winner, behind Bryan Roy and Stan Collymore.
He could have scored earlier in the game but persistence paid off, and few will blame him for those failures now the points are secured.
It was his fifth league goal of the season and shows why he is integral to Forest under Nuno.
Before the Portuguese manager arrived Wood scored just six league goals in a season and a half, before netting four in Nuno’s first two games, including a hat-trick in the win at Newcastle last December.
Another seven followed, and the New Zealand forward has hit the ground running this season, just when Forest needed him to after missing out on adding their strikeforce.
Palace enter dangerous territory
Crystal Palace ended last season with six wins from their final seven games and their immediate future looked bright.
They had a joint-highest points tally in the Premier League, and a new manager who had won the Europa League two years previously.
Now, after defeat at the City Ground, they are on their longest winless start to a season in 31 years.
Manager Glasner has already said the first goal is not to get relegated and, as it stands, it should be the only one.
They are the lowest scorers in the division with five, and need Nketiah to find his feet.
Forest wanted Nketiah in the summer but he faded after his early strike hit the post and is not a like-for-like replacement for Michael Olise – such a loss after he joined Bayern Munich in the summer – who had a brilliant understanding with Eze.
Yet after paying about £30m to sign him from Arsenal the striker needs goals.
