James Garner’s growing influence and importance in the Nottingham Forest side shows no signs of slowing.
Steve Cooper’s men came from a goal down to beat Queens Park Rangers 3-1 win at the City Ground last night.
It was a big win against Mark Warburton’s team who sit in the play-off places in the Championship, but if Forest win their game in hand on The Rs, they will leapfrog them in the table.
With Bournemouth continuing to stutter in their attempts to sow up the second automatic promotion spot, Forest, who currently sit eighth in the table with 10 games to go are only eight points off the second-placed Cherries.
With at least one game in hand on all four of the teams that currently occupy the play-off places, Cooper will fancy his side’s chances of claiming one of the four spots.
Heading into the closing stages of last night’s clash, it was yet another Garner corner which enabled Forest to take the lead.
The England Under-21 international’s deliberate looking front post corner was tapped home by Ryan Yates.
It was Garner’s fourth assist from a corner this season, which is twice as many as Manchester United have managed in the Premier League.
Harry Maguire and Cristiano Ronaldo are the two Red Devils players to score in the top-flight this season from corners.
Garner’s latest assist means he has been directly involved in seven goals (two goals, five assists) in his last 10 games for Nottingham Forest. Prior to that Garner had produced one goal and one assist from 25 matches.
No player from either registered as many shots (3) and shots on target (2) as the 21-year-old last night.
Garner had 64 touches and was the most fouled player on the pitch (4), according to WhoScored.
Having already put Arsenal and Leicester to the sword at the City Ground in the FA Cup, James Garner will be hoping to inspire Nottingham Forest to another huge giant-killing when Manchester United’s fierce rivals Liverpool come to town on Sunday night.
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