| Reporter:
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Stanno |
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| Hold the back page!! Today we had the welcome sight of long queues at the ticket offices as many of Forest's long lost legion of fans decided to make a return to The City Ground, causing the kick off to be delayed by 15 minutes. This was a great opportunity for the Reds to show people what they had been missing, and although they never really got going in the first half, they certainly served up plenty of excitement in the second period. |
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| Forest are finally beginning to look like a half decent side, and although it would be fair to say that Birmingham had more possession than Forest in the first half, it was the Reds who created the better chances. Once again Forest looked dangerous down both flanks through Brennan and Gray, who both put in excellent crosses but headers by John and Harewood went high and wide. |
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| Platt obviously used the break to instill a little more confidence in his side, and they could have been three up inside the first quarter of an hour. Harewood was using his strength and pace to devastating effect, creating chances for both himself and his team-mates. His easiest chance to open the scoring came on 50 minutes when he got onto the end of a wonderful ball from Johnson only to shoot wide. Marlon was doing all the hard work but often lacked the composure to add the final touch. |
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| However, his touch was not to desert him after 81 minutes, when yet again he latched onto another terrific through ball from Johnson. It looked as though Marlon may have had too much time, but he controlled the ball well and as Poole advanced, Marlon hammered the ball past him and into the bottom corner. This boy is looking better with each game and I think Dougie is going to have a hard time getting his place back. |
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| Birmingham piled forward in the last few minutes and a low stinging shot from Holland forced Beasant into a superb one handed save low down to his right.
So another Home victory for the Reds opens up just a little daylight between us and the bottom teams, but we must keep going and try to come away from The Valley with at least a point. |
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| Forest Man-of-the-Match:
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Andy Johnson |
