Awoniyi equals Salah, Adebayor’s Premier League scoring run

Awoniyi scores against Man United.Pix: Sports brief

Taiwo Awoniyi has equalled the record of Mohamed Salah and Emmanuel Adebayor as the African footballers with the longest scoring run in the English Premier League.

Awoniyi achieved this feat after scoring as early as the second minute to put Nottingham Forest 1-0 ahead against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday.

The Super Eagles striker has now scored in seven consecutive Premier League matches for Forest, same as Salah and Adebayor did with Liverpool and Arsenal respectively.

Awoniyi scored against Man United courtesy of an assist from Morgan Gibbs-White after which Willy Boly made it 2-0 in favour of the visiting Tricky Tees in the fourth minute.

Christian Eriksen thereafter scored in the 17th minute after being set up by Marcus Rashford to reduce the tally to 2-1 even as the Premier League game is still on.

Awoniyi, last Friday, netted in a 2-1 win over Sheffield United to equal the scoring record of Stan Collymore in six consecutive Premier League games for Forest between March and April 1995.

His scoring run is now the longest ever by a Nigerian in the competition and he is now the first player to score in Forest’s opening three top-flight matches of a season since Peter Davenport in 1984-85.

The former Union Berlin ace a fortnight ago netted in a 2-1 loss to Arsenal to become only the second Forest player to score in five straight EPL appearances, also matching Collymore’s feat.

Awoniyi had become the first player since 1995 to score in four straight Premier League games for Forest as the match-winner when the club defeated Arsenal 1-0 at the City Ground back in May.

The 26-year-old has so far scored 13 goals in 30 Premier League appearances for the Tricky Tees