Nottingham Forest secured their survival in the Championship with a vital 3-0 home win over Ipswich Town on the final day of the season.
The Reds were level on points with Blackburn – and only out of the relegation zone on goal difference – as the game kicked off at the City Ground at noon on Sunday.
And things began badly as Blackburn raced into an early 2-0 lead away at Brentford while the Reds tie remained at 0-0.
But the mood inside packed out City Ground transformed two minutes before halftime when Britt Assombalonga converted a penalty into the top corner after a foul by Ipswich goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski on Jamie Ward.
Real passion the City Ground as @nffc stay up pic.twitter.com/4RsYcrX1zT
— Ian Curryer (@IanCurryer) May 7, 2017
Chris Cohen’s deflected shot made it 2-0 on 57 minutes and Forest’s survival was all but guaranteed by a powerful run inside the area and thunderous shot into the roof of the Ipswich net by Assombalonga on 69 minutes.
Assombalonga had earlier missed the chance of a hat-trick and an even more comfortable victory when he missed a penalty on 66 minutes.
The result made Blackburn’s 3-1 away win at Brentford academic and sent the Lancashire side crashing into League One – when Forest had seemed destined for the same fate early in the afternoon.
Forest finish the season in 21st place in the Championship – level on points with Blackburn but two ahead of them on goal difference.
