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Sammy Ameobi's goal against Luton was his second for Nottingham Forest since joining from Bolton in the summer

Goals from Lewis Grabban and Sammy Ameobi moved Nottingham Forest back into the play-off places as they condemned struggling Luton Town to a third consecutive defeat.

Grabban rewarded Forest's first-half superiority by collecting Tiago Silva's through ball to slot coolly past Hatters goalkeeper James Shea just before the break.

Ameobi was given time and space to control Joe Lolley's cross before finding the bottom corner to seal the points for Sabri Lamouchi's side in the second half.

Luton pulled one back late on as Callum McManaman curled a fine strike past Forest keeper Brice Samba but the Hatters slip to 21st, just two points above the bottom three.

Forest, like Luton, had lost their previous two games, with defeats to Wigan and Hull threatening to undermine the promising start they had made under Frenchman Lamouchi.

Prior to that, Forest - who climbed to fifth with victory - had gone 10 Championship games unbeaten and they returned to that sort of form at Kenilworth Road.

Grabban could have had a first-half hat-trick, twice drilling decent openings wide before opening the scoring with a composed finish for his sixth goal of the season.

Forest eased off after Ameobi doubled their lead and Luton could have rescued a point had lively substitute Kazenga Lua Lua not fired just wide shortly after McManaman halved the deficit.

The Hatters were also twice denied by marginal offside calls, the referee's assistant ruling out Dan Potts' first-half effort and James Collins' second-half header.

Luton Town manager Graeme Jones:

"I could easily hide behind 70 per cent possession and two offside goals disallowed - Kaz (Kazenga LuaLua) was unlucky, Callum (McManaman) scored a great goal - but I'm not going to.

"I was disappointed with the performance, the first time I've been really disappointed. The performance wasn't good enough.

"It was a totally different challenge to the one we've had previously in the Championship. We had Nottingham Forest and we need to mark how far we've come at times.

"Former two-times European Cup winners, sit in and play on the counter attack at Luton and I think we struggled for craft and creativity to break that down.

"If you think about the last three games, the challenges are there for all to see, but we'll stick our shoulders out and relish it."

Nottingham forest manager Sabri Lamouchi:

"After two losses and a bad moment, it was a good result.

"I'm so happy for the performance because we deserved the victory. We created a lot and we missed the last touch to score more in the first half.

"We had the right performance and attitude about the plan, so I'm so happy for the players. It was important because we lost our last games by just one mistake.

"We have quality but without this attitude, aggression and discipline, it's a different game. So it's good for the future."