Matt Smith destroyed Nottingham Forest with a 13-minute first-half hat-trick to boost Millwall’s hopes of reaching the Championship play-offs with a rousing 3-0 triumph at the City Ground.
Forest went into the game with a chance of moving up to third place in the table and five points behind Leeds, currently occupying the second automatic promotion spot.
Instead, it was Gary Rowett’s Lions who came away with only their second win from their past nine league matches to lift themselves to within two points of the top six, and their biggest away win since a 4-1 victory – again at Forest – in November 2012.
Sabri Lamouchi’s side had no answer to the visitors’ penetrative cut-and-thrust football in the opening half that allowed Smith to score the second hat-trick of his nine-season career, and his first in the league.
Smith netted his first after 20 minutes, stooping brilliantly onto a low cross from Murray Wallace, who had cut inside Forest captain Ben Watson, after a break from deep.
Six minutes later Jayson Molumby passed the ball into the net from 15 yards, which would have been the 20-year-old’s first senior goal in 34 appearances, only for Smith to claim a decisive touch en route.
Just after the half-hour, a Millwall side that had scored only three goals in their previous seven league matches, made it 3-0, with Smith nodding home from two yards after Shane Ferguson’s inswinging corner to the far post.
Smith was replaced to a standing ovation from the visiting fans 10 minutes from time of a game in which the Lions roared out a warning, leaving Forest limping along after claiming just six points from the last 18 on offer.
