When the final whistle blew, Howe’s fifth-placed team had closed the gap on Nuno’s Forest to three points and must have felt that Madrid, Milan, Munich and the rest of the Champions League staging posts had moved into sharper focus on the horizon.
Before kick-off, much was made of the looming midfield duel between Miley and another Newcastle academy graduate, Forest’s Elliot Anderson but of that pair, it was Eddie Howe’s No 67 who built the stronger case for a senior England call-up.
First the outstanding Lewis Miley equalised, swivelling and shooting low, unerringly and left footed through a thicket of legs and on beyond Matz Sels after controlling Lewis Hall’s cross.
It left the, in that instance, somewhat fortunate Sweden striker level with Forest’s Chris Wood on 18 Premier goals this season but, before half-time, Isak had scored number 19.
Forest had no answer to the midfielder’s hallmark glide across the turf and all that remained was for Isak to see a left foot shot sail over Sels after taking a deflection off Murillo.
