Kienan Davis opened his Nottingham Forest scoring account last night in the Reds 3-0 win over Barnsley
Davis arrived at the City Ground on New Years Day on loan from Aston Villa.
Since he has endeared himself to his manager and the Forest faithful with a serious of strong performances that he capped off with a first goal last night.
He made his debut in Forest’s 1-0 victory over Arsenal in the FA Cup and made a good impression against Premier League opposition.
After the Barnsley victory, Steve Cooper spoke glowingly of his new recruit: “His overall play has been good and he is getting fit for 90 minutes.”
The 23-year-old striker stands tall at 6ft 3inches and gives defenders a physical challenge.
“He is a handful to play against and we have to make chances for him, he created and won his today through effort and it looked like a strikers finish,” said Cooper.
Davis pressed the Barnsley backline from the start and after just 15 minutes his hard work was rewarded.
His pressure led to Barnsley centre-back Mads Juel Henderson gifting the striker possession and Davis raced through on-goal and buried his finish past Bradley Collins.
Davis had been at Villa since December 2015, when he signed on a 18-month youth contract.
The lad from Stevenage had to wait until January 2017 to make his debut, when he came on off the bench in Villa’s FA Cup loss to Tottenham Hotspur.
It was against Barnsley that Davis scored his first goal as Villa raced to a 3-0 win at Oakwell in September 2017.
In the same game he grabbed an assist and won the penalty for Albert Adomah’s second goal.
Davis signed a new contract at Villa in September, but since Steven Gerrard’s arrival at Villa Park, Davis has found himself surplus to requirements.
While his goal-scoring feats at Villa Park left a lot to be desired managing just three goals in 73 league games, his hold-up play and ability to bring in others was useful for his parent club.
Between 2017-2018 Davis made three appearances for England Under 20s scoring two goals – he is yet to grab the attention of senior team manager Gareth Southgate.
