Nottingham Forest climbed out of the Premier League relegation zone with a narrow 1-0 win over bottom side Southampton at St Mary’s.
Forest, 18th in the table after an impressive home draw with Chelsea on New Year’s Day, travelled to the south coast in search of their first away win this season and took the lead when Brennan Johnson, who had earlier rattled the crossbar from close range, pounced on a Lyanco error and raced clear before setting up Taiwo Awoniyi for a simple tap-in.
Southampton, who have now lost six consecutive league games, wasted an opportunity to take the lead in the first half when Che Adams fired wide but failed to register a shot on target and were again booed off by their own fans at the end of each half.
The result leaves Southampton rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table on 12 points after 17 matches. Forest rise to 15th having lost just two of their past eight league matches.
