Clinical Sam Surridge applies lethal dose to relegate Peterborough United

Sam Surridge proved to be the afternoon’s hero and villain at London Road, as Nottingham Forest all but secured a playoff place with a 1-0 victory over plucky Peterborough United.

The former Stoke City striker, who joined the Reds in January, found himself on the scoresheet once again. His header just before halftime was decisive for Forest to take all three points to relegate Peterborough from the Championship.

It was an excellent all-around showing from the Forest man, again selected to lead the front-line ahead of the returning Lewis Grabban as Aston Villa loanee Keinan Davis remains sidelined.

Surridge’s performance will boost his self-belief that he is currently Steve Cooper’s first-choice striker on merit. But he also continued to let his teammates know that he is much more than a backup option with another clinical finish in front of goal.

With Forest looking to cement themselves in the top six and Peterborough scrapping for their lives at the bottom of the table, it was another encounter, similar to Luton last weekend, where the Reds faced a team full of endeavour more than prepared to ruffle a few feathers. 

Leading the line at the opposing end from the imposing Jonson Clarke-Harris, the slender figure of Surridge needed a little more time to get involved in the game as the hosts came out of the traps strongly. 

Adopting a high press, Ricky Jade-Jones found himself behind the Forest rearguard within the opening ten minutes and almost put Peterborough ahead. Latching on to Hayden Burrows’ pass, Jade-Jones was denied by an excellent reaction save from Brice Samba, denying the Posh midfielder with his legs.

As Posh continued to press Forest back, forcing some early corners, the hosts were always going to risk getting caught on the break. Surridge, still trying to get himself into the action, worked hard off the ball to impose himself in a couple of early exchanges.

As Forest began to gain further territory up the pitch through Surridge’s work rate, some neat play from the striker allowed Forest to get a firm foothold in the game. Coming deep to receive the ball, a simple pass to the marauding Djed Spence earned Hayden Burrows an early booking as he clattered into the wing-back just outside the box. 

Spence continued to be on the rough end of some Posh treatment, with the home crowd jeering his early touches. Ryan Yates was next to be on the receiving end of a heavy Jack Taylor challenge that saw him see a yellow card from Michael Salisbury as the game became more physical.

A swift Forest break caught Posh out as Yates got Spence away down the right, overcooking his cross as Surridge struggled to keep his header down.

With the atmosphere cranking up a few notches as a result, but not to be outdone in the contest, Surridge incensed the home support as he left Ronnie Edwards in a heap. Chasing down a lost cause, as the Posh man shepherded the ball out of play, Surridge’s pressure saw the young defender clatter into the advertising hoardings, leaving him dazed with the crowd screaming for retribution. The Forest man was revelling in the early role of villain.

Alert in the game, Surridge almost conjured himself up an opportunity out of nothing. Collecting a loose pass inside the Posh half, he showed skill to skip away from a couple of challenges but was denied by the covering Frankie Kent as he threatened to burst clean through on goal.

With news filtering through to the stands that Reading was trailing at Hull, Surridge turned party pooper as he nudged Forest ahead before the break rounding off an excellent counterattack. 

As Brennan Johnson knicked the ball on halfway, an exchange of passes with Philip Zinckernagel found the Forest youngster in space on the left-hand side of the box. On his unfavoured foot, Johnson’s inviting cross to the back post found Surridge, who, with work still to do, planted a textbook downwards header past Dai Cornell and into the bottom corner.

The finish was symptomatic of what Surridge has served up in a Forest shirt so far. Given the service, he rarely misses the target.

It was Surridge’s fifth goal in Forest colours and his second in consecutive games following his last-minute strike in their 4-0 rout over West Brom on Easter Monday. 

Whilst Forest had to ride the inevitable wave of pressure from Posh in the second period, still trying to keep their season alive, Surridge was involved in another flowing breakaway which almost saw the Reds grab the all-important goal to put the game to bed.

As Jack Colback won a significant challenge on the edge of his box to set Forest on the break once more, Zinckernagel curled his effort wide of goal as Sturridge and Yates had kept the move alive.

Replaced by Lewis Grabban on 73 minutes, Surridge’s last action was to go into the book as he again chased down the Peterborough backline, fighting to keep the hosts at bay. 

Coming off to a standing ovation from the travelling support, it was an excellent showing from Forest’s number 16.  Boasting impressive 100% passing accuracy stats, and winning 33% of all duels against more prominent defenders (SofaScore.com), his movement and contributions with the ball, aside from his goal, were vital in maintaining Forest’s push for an automatic promotion.

When asked post match about what it meant to be leading the line for this current Forest side that are showing no signs of fear in their pursuit of promotion, Surridge is delighted to have been given the opportunity.

“Leading the line for Forest is big. I probably didn’t expect it too early when I was coming in in January. But at the same time, I did expect it because that’s what I want to be doing.

“I always had it in the back of my head what I want to do. I’ve just got to keep putting in the hard yards on the training ground, and hopefully keep doing it on the pitch.”

The striker’s performance had delighted his manager at full time.

“We really believe in him. He’s waited patiently for some starts. He’s been good for his goal, performed well, and you can see his work ethic; his running stats are through the roof and that’s important to me. 

Sam is a really good guy, who I know from previously and he is a character who is very well liked amongst the lads. He deserves it,  the number nine want to be scoring goals and he is at the moment, so let’s hope that can continue.”

With Fulham next up on Tuesday evening at Craven Cottage, Forest are still in with an outside chance of catching second-placed Bournemouth if results go in their favour. Supposing that scenario plays out then a mouth-watering fixture on the 2nd of May at the Vitality Stadium could be one of the biggest games in Championship history.

As Cooper maintained at full time, whilst there is still a chance, his team will keep going until mathematically impossible.

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