Nottingham Forest edged Sunderland closer to Premier League safety.

The 26-year-old, who scored a hat-trick in last weekend’s 4-1 win over Burnley, struggled in the first half as the Europa League semi-finalists moved eight points clear of 18th-placed Tottenham, with just five games remaining.

With the help of a dismal defensive performance from Regis Le Bris’ men, Forest had secured the game before the half-time break, until Try Hume’s unfortunate own goal triggered a flurry of goals from Chris Wood, Gibbs White, and Igor Jesus within six minutes. death

In the process, they extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to eight games and inflicted the Black Cats’ heaviest defeat since their return to the top flight as they lost four matches in a row, making a rare, if mercifully brief, noise during the break.

The visitors started brightly, and Anderson saw his early strike blocked by Omar Alderete after Noah Sadiki carelessly laid the ball straight to Omri Hutchinson. However, Chris Rigg missed a great chance to fire Le Bris ahead when he shot past Metz Sels, the keeper for Enzo Le F.

Sunderland keeper Robin Rufus had to dive to his right to palm away Hutchinson’s 13th-minute effort after Aldreit gifted possession to Jesus.

But Forest went ahead in somewhat unpleasant circumstances after 17 minutes.

Hutchinson worked on a short corner with Anderson and crossed for Jesus to head the ball in off the back of Hume’s head, and Rufus could only look on in horror as he slotted past him at his near post.

The visitors extended their lead 14 minutes before the break when Rufus’ attempted clearance was half-stopped by Wood, who was on hand to flick the ball into the unguarded net when Gibbs-White played it back.

Three minutes later, Forest was in dreamland as Williams and Anderson executed another short corner, allowing Jesus to pass to Gibbs-White, who fired a first-time shot past the helpless Rufus.

It was 4-0 with 37 minutes gone when, after clearing Hutchinson’s cross and parrying Ola Aina’s early effort, Jesus smashed home the rebound to leave the hosts with a mountain to climb.

Lee Bris sent on Renaldo for a ruck at the break and switched to a back three, and they thought they had reduced the deficit when Ballard headed home from close range with 61 minutes gone, only for referee Darren England to be sent to the monitor and ultimately disallow the goal for a foul on Nordy Mukele on Seles.

It took three minutes for a one-handed move from Sales to deny Le Fes a consolation goal, and it was Rufus who once again poked the ball out of his net in stoppage time after Andersen got in the right way to finish the job.

P.A