{"id":540022,"date":"2026-04-19T21:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540022\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T21:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:46:11","slug":"gibbs-white-hat-trick-sinks-burnley-and-moves-forest-closer-towards-safety-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540022\/","title":{"rendered":"Gibbs-White hat-trick sinks Burnley and moves Forest closer towards safety | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a moment early in the second half when Morgan Gibbs-White, asked to move left from his favoured No 10 position as Nottingham Forest<\/a> reshaped at half-time in a bid to get back into a game Burnley were winning, mistimed his swivelled shot so badly, with a clear sight of goal, that the ball looped harmlessly behind, like a balloon at a child\u2019s party.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going down with the Burnley<\/a>,\u201d sang the travelling fans gleefully in the Bridgford Stand, as they treasured the rare lead Zian Flemming had given them in first-half stoppage time.<\/p>\n

Forest\u2019s team captain is made of sterner stuff, however. He has not enjoyed his best season, after last year\u2019s high points with the club catapulted him into the England squad, but the next time chances fell his way, as he came in from the left, he dispatched both clinically and stylishly: one from James Ward-Prowse\u2019s inadvertent back header, the second from Omari Hutchinson\u2019s right-wing cross.<\/p>\n

And when he handed the armband over to the substitute Ryan Yates, the club captain returned the favour, crossing superbly for Gibbs-White to head in and complete his 15-minute hat-trick. It was a first treble in senior football for the man who also scored the goal on Thursday, against Porto<\/a>, to seal Forest\u2019s place in the Europa League semi-finals. No Englishman has scored more than his 12 Premier League goals this season.<\/p>\n

Morgan Gibbs-White connects perfectly to volley home and put Forest into a 2-1 lead. Photograph: Ryan Crockett\/Every Second Media\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

When Igor Jesus ran through on to Nicol\u00e1s Dom\u00ednguez\u2019s pass in the ninth minute of stoppage time to slide his shot beyond Martin Dubravka, Forest\u2019s recovery was complete, their afternoon made and their top-flight status well on the way to being secured. As Burnley moved to within one more disappointment of relegation \u2013 which would be all but confirmed should West Ham beat Crystal Palace on Monday night \u2013 Forest moved five points clear of the Premier League\u2019s bottom three. \u201cYou\u2019re going down with the Tottenham,\u201d their fans sang back at their Burnley counterparts.<\/p>\n

V\u00edtor Pereira said Gibbs-White had been out of sorts in the first half but the tactical tweaks helped. \u201cToday was, of course, it\u2019s about the players, about the team, about the supporters, but I think me and my staff, we helped them to find the GPS to find the ways to go home,\u201d the head coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course he\u2019s a fantastic player for us, and I\u2019m not only speaking technically and tactically, but about\u00a0character.\u201d<\/p>\n

England have a plethora of talented No 10s but this was a timely reminder to Thomas Tuchel that Gibbs-White, with eight goals in his past 13 games all told, should be considered for the World Cup squad. \u201cHe deserves it,\u201d Pereira said, \u201cbecause he has the quality. He has the qualities of a leader. When things are not happening in the way that we want, when the team is not finding the pace, he is a player \u2026 that wants the ball, wants the responsibility. He wants to score goals, to assist. When I ask him to play on the pocket when we are attacking, but you must defend in the side \u2026 it\u2019s not a problem for him because he understands the game, because he has the spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zian Flemming puts Burnley 1-0 up in added time in the first half. Photograph: Andrew Boyers\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

If Gibbs-White was the undoubted man of the match, and the hero of the quarter of an hour, then Elliot Anderson will also remember this afternoon poignantly. Before the game, there were touches of class from the club to mark the loss of the England midfielder\u2019s mother, Helen. Anderson placed flowers and his No 8 shirt inscribed with the word \u201cMum\u201d in the centre circle, before a minute\u2019s applause rang around the ground. It was brave of Anderson to play in such circumstances. \u201cIt was not easy for him,\u201d Pereira said. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine what he\u2019s feeling inside. But he gave everything for the team today. He\u2019s another example of a top player with a strong character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibbs-White added: \u201cHe is massive for us, and his decision to come back in is down to him \u2013 and it came out today as the right decision. It is a horrible moment [for him] right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first half was played out in beautiful spring sunshine but the football was lukewarm. Forest, perhaps still feeling the effects of Thursday\u2019s game, struggled. In the second minute of added time, Marcus Edwards collected Nikola Milenkovic\u2019s misguided headed clearance, fed Jaidon Anthony and, on the overlap, Quilindschy Hartman \u2013 it was as if the game was taking place in slow motion \u2013 crossed for Flemming to score. But Forest found their fire in Gibbs-White.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a moment early in the second half when Morgan Gibbs-White, asked to move left from his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-540022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}