Nottingham players campaign to get FA Cup hero Eric Lichaj a dog

LONDON, England – Nottingham Forest players and fans have launched a social media campaign to get defender Eric Lichaj a dog after he revealed he fell one goal short of earning a pet in the FA Cup win over Arsenal.

The American scored twice as the Championship side won 4-2 at the City Ground on Sunday, January 7 to eliminate the holders, and said after the game his wife had promised him a dog if he scored a hat-trick this season.

He tweeted on Monday, asking “anyone who is bored” to send “dog pics, memes, gifs” to @KatPerko – his wife’s Twitter handle – and plenty of users joined in using the hashtag #GetEricADog.

Just finished doing press and received the whole game on usb stick. Thank you! Heard everyone chatting USA!! Will always remember that!! #nffc @katperko need my  now

— Eric Lichaj (@EricLichaj) January 7, 2018

Teammates also got involved, with Kieran Dowell, who scored the penalty for Forest’s fourth when Lichaj was keen to take it, posting a GIF of a beagle flying on a magic carpet.

Various other teammates waded in, with Ben Brereton, Zach Clough and Matty Cash among those to post dog-related videos on Monday. 

BBC Radio Nottingham tweeted: “Sure many @NFFC fans would support our attempts to wear down @EricLichaj’s wife to get the man a dog after his efforts on the pitch yesterday.” 

The radio station questioned whether two goals could mean a small dog for the man of the moment. 

Lichaj will be out of contract at the end of the season and was in talks about a new deal before Mark Warburton was sacked as manager, but he has yet to put pen to paper. 

Academy boss Gary Brazil, in charge of first-team affairs until the club appoint a new boss, hopes Forest keep hold of the 29-year-old. 

“He is not a player this club would want to lose. You do not want to lose good players, do you?” he said. 

“Whatever age they are, you want to keep good players at a club and secure at the club so that they enable you to push on.” – Rappler.com