Delap looks to Forest to repay £45m fee as City Ground expansion approved

Many scoffed at the £45m Nottingham Forest paid for Liam Delap in the summer, but the City Ground feels like the perfect place for the striker to regain his form.

Forest previously thrived with the now-injured Chris Wood as their arrowhead, and Delap is a younger regent for the New Zealander — powerful, instinctive and willing to bring others into play. In Saturday's win at Villa, Morgan Gibbs-White and Delap appeared to already have an understanding, and both will look to capitalise against a Coventry side that has conceded eight goals in their past two games (Saturday, 5.30pm BST).

After a nervy campaign last season, Forest feel back in the ascendancy — and were delighted that plans to increase the City Ground's capacity from 31,000 to 52,500, at an estimated cost of £790m, were approved by the local council on Wednesday.