Fulham find their home form again to make it tough for high-riding Forest
Fulham (1) 2 Smith Rowe 15, Bassey 62
Nottm Forest (1) 1 Wood 37
Calvin Bassey's first Premier League goal for Fulham at the Cottage gave the Whites a deserved first league win on home soil for two and a half months.
The defender got into an unfamiliar attacking position to send a looping header back across keeper Matz Sels and into the far corner to give the Whites a win their overall dominance merited.
They made third-placed Forest look anything but Champions League place contenders and ought to have won far more comfortably but Marco Silva will be relieved that a run of five at home in the league without success has been brought to an end.
Those recent wins at Leicester and Newcastle masked the uncomfortable truth that recent home form has not quite been good enough to build their own case for European football - and that will need to change in the remaining games.
The Whites went into this one without a home win in the Premier League since the visit of Brighton at the beginning of December. There have since been four draws, followed by the obligatory home defeat to Man United.
Raul Jimenez almost got the ball rolling, when he did superbly to generate some pace and direction on a byline cross from Adam Traore after the Spanish muscle man had outflanked Neco Williams.
It was the same supply line which then created the opener for Emile Smith Rowe, timing a dart to the far post to perfection to get on the end of Traore's left-foot cross - the former Arsenal midfielder's fifth goal for the Whites.
Another beautiful burst of acceleration from the winger created more problems for Forest and another half-chance for Jimenez that had home fans out of their seats applauding enthusiastically and warming to their team's impressive energy.
Fluid Fulham might have doubled their lead when Jimenez - teed up by Sasa Lukic after a lay-off from Alex Iwobi - gave Sels some stretching to do to tip a well-directed shot aside.
It was insanely unjust that Forest should be level at the break. In their only real attack, a long ball from Morgan Gibbs-White reached Chris Wood, who held off Bassey before turning and firing a shot that deflected off the defender past Bernd Leno, who had been a virtual spectator up to then. It was the Forest striker's 18th top-flight goal of the campaign.
The home dominance continued even then, with Iwobi just clearing the bar with a volley and Jimenez sending Sels sprawling with a low curler from outside the box.
Fulham remained firmly in the mood to get the job done after the break, despite the setback of conceding that equaliser, and Traore almost found the bottom corner - only an Elliot Anderson deflection sending it wide.
A second Whites goal had to come and when Jimenez headed on a corner from the near post, Bassey profited with an expertly-judged header to win it.
It was a great time for him to claim his first of the season and first ever goal in front of home fans for the Whites. His only previous goal came in the win at Man United a year ago.
The icing on the cake would have been a goal from late sub Willian but it was still a strange and unexpectedly happy moment for Fulhamfans to see him back on the field after his brief time in Greece with Olympiakos.
Whites: (4-2-3-1) Leno - Castagne, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson - Lukic (Reid 82), Berge - Traore (Sessegnon 90), Smith Rowe (Pereira 82), Iwobi (Willian 90) - Jimenez (Muniz 76)
Forest: (3-5-2) Sels - Morato (Hudson-Odoi 69), Milemkovic, Murillo - Aina, Gibbs-White, Danilo (Sangare 63), Anderson (Silva 85), Williams - Wood, Elanga
Attendance: 27,164
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