Nottingham Forest secured a much-needed victory in their battle against relegation with a 3-1 home win over Fulham.

The damage was done in a devastating first-half attacking display as the hosts went into half-time with a three-goal lead.

Goals from Callum Hudson-Odoi, Chris Wood and Morgan Gibbs-White put Forest in the driving seat and they held on after the break to pick up their first win in six league games.

Tosin Adarabioyo’s early second-half goal threatened an unlikely Fulham comeback but, despite some pressure from the west London side, Nuno Espirito Santo collected his fourth league win as Forest boss to take his side three points clear of the relegation zone.

Hudson-Odoi opened the scoring for the home side in the ninth minute with a powerful strike across the goalkeeper that found the bottom corner after he had cleverly cut inside Fulham full-back Kenny Tete.

The former Chelsea youngster ran onto a fine through-ball from Gibbs-White on the halfway line before scoring his fifth league goal of the season – four of which have come at the City Ground.

In setting up the opener, Gibbs-White posted an assist for a third successive Premier League appearance, his best run in the competition.

Forest made it 2-0 just 10 minutes later through top scorer Wood. The New Zealand international picked up Murillo’s pass with his back to goal 25 yards out before turning and curling his shot past a motionless Bernd Leno.

It was an unusual goal for Wood in that it was just his third Premier League strike from outside the box out of 66 scored in total.

Such was Forest’s dominance that Fulham boss Silva felt forced to make a triple substitution in the 33rd minute, with Tom Cairney, Willian and Adama Traore replacing Sasa Lukic, Alex Iwobi and Harry Wilson.

This was the earliest in a Premier League game that a team had made three substitutions since Stoke City did so against Sunderland in February 2009 after just 30 minutes.

But it made little difference as Gibbs-White scored a third in first-half stoppage time. After clever play from Danilo, the midfielder stroked the ball past Leno to net his fourth league goal of the campaign.

Fulham came out fighting in the second half, scoring just four minutes after the break via defender Adarabioyo.

The 26-year-old headed past Matz Sels after beating his marker to Andreas Pereira’s corner to score his third Premier League goal, two of which have come at the City Ground after also netting in Fulham’s 3-2 win last season.

But Adarabioyo’s goal failed to spark a second-half comeback, with Forest securing a valuable win in the quest for Premier League safety.

Fulham drop to 13th after AFC Bournemouth beat Crystal Palace. 

Club reports

Nott'm Forest report | Fulham report

Match officials

Referee: Michael Oliver. Assistants: Stuart Burt, Dan Cook. Fourth official: Darren England. VAR: Peter Bankes. Assistant VAR: Gary Beswick.