Town fall to another defeat and further away from Premier League survival after losing 4-2 at home to Nottingham Forest

Three goals within a devastating eight minute first half spell helped condemn Ipswich to a comprehensive 4-2 home defeat to Nottingham Forest moving them further away from Premier League safety.

Nicola Milenkovic opened the scoring in the 35th minute and Swedish winger Anthony Elanga added two more individual goals in the 37th and 42nd minute.

Town pulled a goal back in the 82nd minute through Jens Cajuste but Forest made it four five minutes later through substitute Jota Silva while Hirst got Town’s second in added on time.

The result confirmed Forest’s challenge for a Champions League spot and resulted in Ipswich falling nine points behind Wolverhampton Wanderers who won 2-1 at Southampton.

Ipswich made one change to the team that started last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at Palace with Omari Hutchinson, who was pronounced fully fit again having hurt his knee when on the receiving end of a red card challenge from Patrick Dorgu at Old Trafford, replacing Jack Clarke in attack.

Meanwhile, Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo named an unchanged team from last weekend’s 1-0 victory over Manchester City.

Town had a couple of chances early in the game.

Firstly when they won a free kick 20 yards from the Forest goal when Hutchinson was fouled but his effort struck the visitor’s wall. Then from the first corner of the match in the 11th minute when Liam Delap leapt high but his header sailed over the bar.

Three minutes later Hutchinson, finding space just inside the penalty area, fired over the bar following a short corner routine as they began to have the lion’s share of the play.

But Forest were a threat on the Ipswich goal and a shot from Elliot Anderson went wide after good build up play from the visitors.

And a raid down the left resulted in Callum Hudson-Odoi firing across the six yard box but with no Forest player to attack the ball.

It became an even contest as the game approached the half hour mark with Forest playmaker Morgan Gibbs-White controlling the midfield.

Alex Palmer safely gathered a header from Chris Wood at the second attempt and the Ipswich keeper had to come out from his goal to clear the ball which deflected off a Town player for a corner which led to Forest opening the scoring in the 35th minute.

The ball was initially cleared but came back into the penalty area where Delap tried to head the ball clear but it fell to Serbian international defender Milenkovic who fired the ball high into the net.

Then Elanga scored twice within five minutes to virtually take the game away from Ipswich.

His first came via a stunning effort which resulted in him speeding down the right and he drew in Jacob Greaves as a shield to fire past a stranded Palmer.

Then Luke Woolfenden failed to deal with a long ball forward by Milenkovic. The ball fell for the Forest wide man who calmly scored his second goal of the game.

And just before the break Kalvin Phillips fired just over the bar.

Cameron Burgess came on at the start of the second half in place of a shell shocked Greaves and Delap had a glorious chance to pull a goal back in the 50th minute following a corner from Leif Davis. He was clearly unmarked inside the six yard area but headed tamely over the bar.

The visitors should have made it 4-0 when Chris Wood side footed the ball straight at Palmer who got down well to gather the ball and their two goal scorer Elanga along with Nicholas Dominguez were replaced by Morato and Ryan Yates in the 68th minute.

Phillips then flighted the ball forward from deep and Delap won the foot race with Nottingham goalkeeper Sels. He lobbed an angled shot towards goal but Milenkovic was there to head away when the ball dropped.

Neco Williams fired an angled shot just wide of Palmer’s left hand post in the 73rd minute as the 3,000 away fans in the 29,878 crowd delighted in their 3-0 lead and gleefully chanted “down with the Leicester, you’re going down with the Leicester”.

There were a further flurry of substitutions in the 80th minute.

Town introduced George Hirst, Nathan Broadhead and Jack Clarke in place of Delap, Jaden Philogene and Julia Enciso while Forest withdrew Wood and Hudson-Odoi bringing on Silva and Taiwo Awoniyi.

And two minutes later Ipswich pulled a goal back through Cajuste when he made a lovely back-to-goal spin to beat Yates and then curled a finish into the top right corner from the edge of the box.

Jack Taylor came on in place of Phillips but Forest extended their lead through Jota.

It was another counter-attacking move. Yates provided a super pass on halfway line and Gibbs-White squared to Jota who stroked the ball past an exposed Palmer.

Moments later Gibbs-White left the field to be replaced by Danilo but Ipswich got a second through Hirst in the 93rd minute when headed home a cross from Dara O’Shea to bring some respectability to the game.