Forest Draw Maintains Unbeaten Run

Forest extended their unbeaten run to 6 games, with a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace today. Although the Reds’ dominated the first half, they went into the break a goal down, but thanks to David McGoldrick, the lads fought back with an early second half equaliser and earned a well deserved point.

Billy Davies made two enforced changes to the team that beat Barnsley in midweek. In came Dele Adebola and Lewis McGugan, to replace the suspended Moussi and the injured Blackstock. If anyone needed to put in a convincing display today, it was young Lewis McGugan. He acquitted himself well and put in a series of decent balls to the strikers, who generally couldn’t provide the killer touch on the day.

Forest played in the tippy tappy style, we all know and love. But, as attractive on the eye as it was, it was unfortunately without an end product. That is something that will be addressed and rectified, the more this squad plays together. It’s all part of the development process that’s underway at the moment.

Despite playing the better football and dominating the play, Forest conceeded a goal just 5 mins from the break. After having a couple of sighters previously, Ambrose scored a cracker from a free kick. From 25 yards out he hit an unstoppable shot, that flew past Camp and into the net.

Palace were lucky not to be down to 10 men as half time approached. Clint Hill was guilty of blatently elbowing Anderson in the head, but the defender only picked up a yellow, after some gamesmanship and interference from Palace manager Neil Warnock. The protests from Warnock, saw that referee Graham Horwood bottled the decision to send the man off.

The Reds’ were quick off the blocks in the second half and got the goal back after only 3 mins of play. Once again it was some decent build up play that brought about the chance. McKenna did well to win a ball in the middle of the park and delivered a good pass to send McGugan on his way. McGugan then did well to put in a pacey ball into the box, that was met by McGoldrick to head in his second goal for the club.

The home side then began to control the game and had a few good chances to claim the points. If it wasn’t for some superb keeping by Camp, the Reds’ could have left the Capital with nothing for their eforts, which would have been harsh following their first half display. It was a worthy point and a fair result at the end of the day.

It wont be too long before Davies has this team converting draws like this into wins. As the man himself says, this is still a work in progress and it’s all progressing nicely. It’s Cardiff up next on the tellybox and that once again will be a massive test, on how well this young and emerging side are doing.