Soccer:Simon Cox has joined Nottingham Forest for an undisclosed fee from West Brom, the Barclays Premier League club have confirmed. The Republic of Ireland striker, who scored 18 goals in 79 appearances after joining Albion in 2009, has put to pen to paper on a three-year deal at the City Ground after passing a medical.

Cox, 25, slipped down the Albion pecking order last season behind Peter Odemwingie, Shane Long and Marc-Antoine Fortune, while the club have further bolstered their forward line this summer by signing Markus Rosenberg and Romelu Lukaku.

West Brom sporting and technical director Dan Ashworth said: "I would like to place on record my thanks to Coxy for his great service to the club.

"He has a fantastic attitude which I think is best summed up by the fact he did not miss a single game through illness or injury. Coxy scored plenty of vital goals during our promotion-winning season in 2009/10.

"He also made a major contribution to the club retaining our Premier League status during the second half of the following season. But, with Shane arriving last summer, Peter continuing to score and Marco also doing well, it became tougher for Coxy to get game time last season and we've now brought in Markus and Romelu.

"We've had lots of interest in him this summer and this is a good move for him and his career. He joins Nottingham Forest with our best wishes."

Cox yesterday told reporters he was excited about the prospect of playing regular first team football again.

“I never got that at West Brom which was disappointing,” he said in Malahide, while on Ireland duty. “I got brought in to be a striker and score goals but I never really got that opportunity. It was frustrating but that’s the competition for places at Premier League level.”

Asked if Ireland’s trip to Serbia might make it difficult for him to play in the Championship for his new club at the weekend he laughed. “You could take me to Korea and I’d still want to come back and play.”