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Joe Lolley hopes to maintain the best scoring form of his career, by continuing to put in the extra work on the training ground with Nottingham Forest.

The winger thanked his teammates and manager Aitor Karanka for giving him the confidence to find his best form, after taking his tally to three goals in four appearances for the Reds with a spectacular strike against Middlesbrough, while also laying on an assist for Lewis Grabban.

Lolley, 26, says he is playing with a smile on his face with the Reds, after being given the freedom and belief to flourish.

And he is particularly pleased at being able to add a few goals to his game – an area of his game that he has been working hard to improve.

“It is as well as I have done in front of goal for a while – and it was probably about time, if I am honest,” said Lolley, who has scored four goals overall this season.

“It is something I have wanted to do; I try to work on finishing as much as I can. I always stay behind after training, because it is an important part of being an attacker.

“There is no point playing well if you cannot produce goals consistently as well. For that work to be paying off makes me very happy.

“I don’t seem to score many tap-ins… at the moment they are all flying in for me, thankfully.

“But we do a lot of work on shooting from the edge of the box. As I said, after training, we always have a shooting competition between us and that seems to be working for us. I will definitely keep on working on that.”

(Image: Doug Moody Photography)

While Lolley looked to be enjoying himself at the Riverside, Middlesbrough’s defenders were not, as he repeatedly tormented them with driving, twisting runs.

“I loved it. I just want to play football and, playing in this team, the other players give you the confidence to express yourself,” said Lolley.

“I can just play how I want to play. There are no restraints put on me, when it comes to what I can do and what I cannot do.

“It is really enjoyable playing in this team.”

Boro right back Ryan Shotton was booked in the first half, meaning he had to be particularly careful against the winger.

“To be honest, for me, it did not make too much difference – I just want to run at people regardless,” said Lolley. “It did help, I guess, because he had to be a little more careful when he was defending.

“It was just a great team performance from back to front. I am sure they will not lose many games here at all, so to come here and win is a great three points for us.

“I don’t think I have been in a better run of form. I feel confident and I love being here at the club; I love playing every week.

“I get confidence from the staff and the other players. It is probably the best I have played, recently. I hope that continues.”

Forest are now unbeaten in seven games, following the last international break.

“The Brentford game was a wake-up call for all of us. We had a meeting after that, as a squad, and we pulled together and said that we needed to be better,” said Lolley.

“We needed to be better on the ball; to be more attacking and have more freedom – not worrying about what the opposition is doing.

“That is what we have done since then. We are in a good vein of form and we hope that can continue, because we do have the players to do it.”

The performance at Middlesbrough was the perfect response to a disappointing evening against Millwall last Wednesday.

“It is the little things in football, we were 2-0 up and comfortable against Millwall. We did not play brilliantly. But we made a few silly errors and that is what happens in this division, you get punished when you make errors,” said Lolley. “But we went to Middlesbrough wanting to learn from those experiences.

“We made sure we slowed the game down when we had to and I don’t think they had too many chances, apart from little headers here and there.

“But it is hard to stop that when they have so many big lads in the box. We still looked comfortable and I felt we deserved it.

“I thought we dominated throughout. They bombarded us late on when we went down to ten men. But we controlled the game in the first half and we could probably have been in the lead.

“We just needed to believe in the second half that we could go on and win the game – and we did.”

Lolley had been a doubt heading into the game against Middlesbrough, having been withdrawn early in the second half against Millwall with a tight hamstring.

“I had the scan and just felt recovered, overnight. I felt quite good. I was happy the day after, because you never know how something like that will react,” he said.

“I felt fit, I felt ready to play and I told the staff that. I was just thankful that he picked me and I was able to help with a win.”