Colin Praises Teams Character

Colin Calderwood praised the character of his Nottingham Forest side after they strengthened their grip on top spot in League One by beating promotion rivals Bristol City.

A Nicky Southall strike after just eight minutes settled the contest and took Forest five points clear of Yeovil and City.

The mood at The City Ground was in stark contrast to a fortnight earlier, when Forest had crashed to a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Scunthorpe.

Calderwood said: ‘Our character showed. I know my group of players pretty well now and I would never say they lack application or a desire to win the game. It showed today.

‘We came to a shuddering halt against Scunthorpe but we’ve put ourselves back in a good position and the boys can be very proud of what they achieved in the last couple of games.

‘I’m very happy – it’s a testament to the players and their desire to bring success to this club.

‘We ended up sneaking a win because City put us under a great deal of pressure late on. It was a real barrage from them but we stood firm, which is pleasing.’

Calderwood added: ‘Five points is the biggest advantage we’ve had so far this season. To win against your closest rivals helps enormously but winning today will not take us over the finishing line.

‘We still have a lot of work to get through and we have to make it incredibly hard for anyone to catch us.’

City manager Gary Johnson was left bemoaning his side’s luck.

He said: ‘We’re disappointed. We gave it a little bit of a go but I don’t feel we created too many clear-cut opportunities.

‘We just needed a deflection, an own goal, a penalty or something to happen, but it just didn’t come for us.

‘I’ll be interested to watch the video because I felt we should have had at least one penalty.

‘Credit to Forest for throwing their bodies in front of things, but if you do that and stop a goal-scoring opportunity with a hand or an arm it’s handball and should be a penalty.

‘But there are 30-odd games left yet for us to try and catch them up again.

‘Forest are in pole position at the moment and the title is their’s to lose, but there’s a long way to go.’

Source NEP.