Nigeria international striker Taiwo Awoniyi set a new mark in the Premier League after his opening goal helped Nottingham Forest defeat Sheffield United 2-1 at the City Ground on Friday night.
Having found the back of the net in Forest’s 2-1 season-opening defeat away to Arsenal at the Emirates, the 26-year-old Awoniyi was on target again with only three minutes played after rising the highest to head in a cross from Serge Aurier and in doing so scored in his last six games for Forest in the Premier League.
His run of scoring in six consecutive Premier League appearances is now the longest of any Nigerian player and he is only surpassed by Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah and former Arsenal, Tottenham, and Manchester City player Emmanuel Adebayor, who have (seven-game runs). During the fixture, Sheffield drew level in the 46th-minute courtesy of a superb strike from Gustavo Hamer, who controlled the ball in space and curled an effort into the top right corner.
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But in the 89th minute, Chris Wood’s well-placed header gave Forest the lead once more which proved to be the winner. The victory enabled Forest to move up to the eighth position on the table awaiting other matches to be played on Saturday and Sunday.
Against Arsenal, Awoniyi, who moved to Forest from Union Berin, came on as a substitute with Forest trailing 2-0 and he scored from a counterattack to spark a late comeback for his side but the Gunners held on to win.