In what had been billed for weeks as a relegation decider, last weekend’s results rendered this clash a last day dead rubber. It’s just as well that was the case for Burnley, who fell behind inside two minutes in typically catastrophic circumstances.
They say there’s a beauty in simplicity at times, and Anthony Elanga strolled to the byline, before laying the ball on a plate for former Burnley man Chris Wood to tap home the opener from six yards.
Wood certainly enjoyed his time at Turf Moor when he donned the claret shirt, and he was enjoying himself today too, inadvertently turning home Ryan Yates’ effort from the edge of the area to double Forest’s lead.
Burnley needed to go all-out if they were to at least give Forest a challenge, and Zeki Amdouni – a scorer in the cup and league H2Hs earlier this campaign – almost completed a personal treble against the Reds, but fired well over the bar after Jacob Bruun Larsen found him unmarked six yards out with a cutback.
All that remained for Burnley to do after HT was give the outgoing Jack Cork and Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson a good send off, but the pair’s swansong day nearly went from bad to worse.
Clearly thirsting for more against his former employers, Wood broke clear but could only sky an effort high over Arijanet Muric’s crossbar.
The one way traffic kept moving in the Tricky Trees’ favour, and but for two Muric saves to deny Morgan Gibbs-White and Murillo, Forest would’ve been well out of sight.
As it happened though, Vincent Kompany’s side were very much still in the game and they halved the arrears 20 minutes from time when Josh Cullen’s effort took a wicked deflection and trickled into the bottom corner.
It proved to be nothing other than a consolation for Burnley who, perhaps fittingly, went down with a whimper. Even a points deduction wasn’t enough to relegate Forest, who closed a regular league season with a win for the first time since 2018/19.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest)