Forest battled for a hard earned point at the City Ground today, against a less than average Birmingham side with delusions of grandeur. This was a game that Forest should have won, but a catalogue of missed chances left us sharing the points.
It’s a funny old game, because after this one I find myself in disagreement with just about everyone who attended today. Forest left the pitch to a standing ovation, which suggests the fans were happy with what had been served up. But the first 60 mins of this affair was a none event. The game was probably hindered by an early City goal, but neither side seemed capable of breaking into a sweat.
The only moment of note in an otherwise forgettable first half, was the goal from Brum. The Forest defence went AWOL and left keeper Camp stranded. He was forced to come out of his comfort zone to deal with the advancing McFadden. From the tightest of angles, the Brum striker managed to slide the ball under Camp and into the net. The keeper quite rightly ripped into his absent team mates with a tirade of abuse.
The half time break couldn’t come soon enough for me, it really was a dire affair. The substitutes Martin and McLeary, were putting in a good shift during the break, which made me think CC was going to ring the changes. Sadly though it wasn’t the case, as both were to resume their places on the bench.
Calderwood must have been delivering a right royal rollocking during the break, because they took an age to come back out onto the pitch. When the game did eventually restart, it was at first a repeat of the first half, with neither side making much effort.
On 52 mins we got an equaliser and it woke up the comatose crowd. Even the 3,000 plus travelling Blues were finding it hard to stay awake, but Perch’s flying header was just what the game needed. It was a scrappy goal from a Cohen freekick, but Perch was on hand to get onto a loose ball that was deflected off Chambers.
Tyson and Garner were beginning to impose themselves and were starting to give the Brum defence something to worry about. Tyson forced a good save from Taylor and the impressive Thornhill saw an effort just fly over the bar. Calderwood made two substitutions, a bit late in the day fo my liking, but they did give us a fresh look. First on was McLeary, who replaced the hard working Anderson, followed by Martin for Garner, who for once actually looked interested. Martin set about terrorising the City defence and put in a few decent crosses that pannicked the visitors. It was all to no avail though, as the Reds’ had no one in the box to get on the end of them.
A draw would have been seen as a good result before KO, but Birmingham were there for the taking today. For a side with Premiership ambitions, they were an embarassment to their lofty league position. McLeish will be the unhappier manager, but will be grateful for the point. Calderwood will once again draw on the positives from a decent second half showing, but we have to be more ruthless in front of goal, if we want to climb out of trouble. As for City and their bid to get into the Premiership. Forget it.
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