Nottingham Forest 7 Brighton 0: Chris Wood hat-trick as hosts destroy sorry Seagulls and boost Champions League hopes

CHRIS WOOD walked off with the match ball and the man of the match award but the entire City Ground knew who had been the real star of the show.

Never mind three goals for the Kiwi striker – his second Forest hat-trick – Morgan Gibbs-White was the name on everyone’s lips after this record-busting blitz of Brighton.

Chris Wood netted an incredible hat-trickCredit: PA

The striker’s goal tally this season is now a whopping 17Credit: PA

Only Mo Salah and Erling Haaland have found the back of the net more than WoodCredit: Getty

Morgan Gibbs-White was also amongst the goalsCredit: GettyGibbs-White scored one, made one, won a penalty and had one hell of an all-round afternoon to remember on his 100th game in a Forest shirt.

He was frankly unstoppable and it was almost symbolic and fitting when Tariq Lamptey literally wrestled him to the ground for the penalty which completed Wood’s treble.

By then it was the only way – bar Jack Hinshelwood’s early yellow card for yanking his shirt – that the Seagulls could halt his progress.

The floodgates opened when Gibbs-White found himself in acres of space down the right and drilled a cross towards the lurking Wood at the far post.

Lewis Dunk stretched out a boot to make sure it never reached the target – and only managed to turn it past keeper Marc Verbruggen and into his own net.

Goal number two came when Gibbs-White ran from beyond the penalty spot to beyond the angle of the six yard box and angled a bullet header into the corner off Anthony Elganga’s corner.

Brighton were already buckling, and did so even more dramatically when Elanga turned provider to hang one up for Wood, who headed down and into the roof of the net.

The wait for VAR confirmation merely delayed the inevitable…but amazingly the floodgates had barely opened.

Number four arrived when Elanga slid over a low cross – after some laid-back thigh-juggling from Gibbs-White – and Wood tapped in from close range.

And then when Lamptey turned to a wrestling hold to try and shackle Gibbs-White, the Forest striker sent keeper Verbruggen one way while the ball went another.

Neco Williams was the six-hitter after a goalmouth scramble with Brighton by now in a total mess.

And when keeper Verbruggen inexplicably passed straight to Jota Silva – off the bench as Gibbs-White got a well-earned rest – he hammered the ball straight back to put Forest in seventh Heaven.

Lewis Dunk turned a cross into his own net to open the floodgatesCredit: Reuters

Neco Williams scored a brilliant sixthCredit: AFP