With a hat-trick from Chris Wood, Nottingham Forest overcame Newcastle United 3-1 at St. James' Park to record their first victory under Nuno Espirito Santo. Wood's hat-trick against his old team in the early kickoff on Boxing Day helped Forest to a spectacular comeback triumph, snapping a seven-game losing streak in the Premier League.
Wood scored twice in the next seven minutes to put Forest out of reach after levelling the score on the stroke of halftime with a close-range strike to negate Alexander Isak's penalty in the 23rd minute. After slickly slipping past a disorganized Newcastle defence for his second goal, Wood became just the fourth player to record a Premier League hat-trick against a team he has previously played for by coolly evading a clumsy offside trap and around Martin Dubravka.