Nottingham Forest close in on European return after thrashing Ipswich

Nottingham Forest's charge towards Europe's top club competition for the first time since 1980 continued with Saturday's dominant 4-1 win over Ipswich Town at Portman Road.

The visitors struck three times in six first-half minutes to close to within one point of second-placed Arsenal and six clear of Manchester City.

Nikola Milenkovic controlled a loose ball inside the area and blasted in on off the underside of the bar to open the floodgates.

Anthony Elanga then drilled in his first goal since Boxing Day at the end of a blistering Forest counter-attack.

Two minutes later Elanga took advantage of dreadful Ipswich defending to sprint clear and slot in his second of the afternoon.

Jens Cajuste and George Hirst scored late consolation goals for Kieran McKenna's men either side of Jota Silva's fourth for Forest.

Ipswich's uphill task to beat the drop suffered another blow as Wolves pulled nine points clear of the bottom three with a 2-1 victory at Southampton.