Aston Villa's Tammy Abraham scored four goals but former Villa striker Lewis Grabban scored a late equaliser as 10-man Nottingham Forest snatched an incredible 5-5 draw in the Championship on Wednesday. The 30-year-old Grabban scored eight times in 15 appearances for Villa during a loan spell last season but his second of the night in a riveting contest denied his old club the unlikeliest of wins.
Grabban and Joao Carvalho gave Forest the ideal platform, with two goals inside the opening six minutes, but Abraham scored twice to level matters with not even a quarter of an hour on the clock. Matty Cash restored Forest's lead midway through the first half but Abraham completed his hat-trick from the spot, sending Costel Pantilimon the wrong way after Yannick Bolasie had been scythed down in the 36th minute.
The influential Joe Lolley restored Forest's lead on 51 minutes but the sending off of Tobias Figueiredo for a rash lunge on John McGinn appeared to tip the balance in Villa's favour. From Jack Grealish's resulting free-kick, Abraham scored his fourth of the night in the 71st minute with a fine near-post header before Anwar El Ghazi's fabulous curling effort moments later put Villa ahead.
Grabban would have the final say, however, collecting Lolley's pas then holding off the challenge of Axel Tuanzebe before squirting beyond Orjan Nyland at his near post. A point apiece in action-packed encounter was probably the least both sides both deserved and it was one that took Forest into the top six, with Villa up to eighth.
West Brom moved up to fourth after coming from behind to defeat Swansea 2-1 at the Liberty Stadium. Tom Ince returned to haunt Derby as Gary Rowett's Stoke secured a 2-1 win despite the first-half dismissal of Peter Etebo in an ill-tempered fixture.
Bristol City came from a goal down twice before prevailing 3-2 at Ipswich. Birmingham bounced back from defeat to bitter rivals Aston Villa last weekend by seeing off Millwall 2-0 and Wigan beat Blackburn 3-1.
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