Forest concluded their pre-season programme with a highly satisfactory performance against Premier League side Birmingham City. Forest were boosted at the start with the return from injury of last years player of the season Chris Cohen who was joined by another injury returnee Dexter Blackstock as the only change to the team that lined up against Stoke.

 

Birmingham included new signings England goalkeeper Joe Hart and former Scottish captain Barry Ferguson in their starting line up as well former Forest loanees Gary McSheffery and Damien Johnson spent most of the first half on the back foot as Forest dominated possession with the McKenna/Majewski partnership in the centre of midfield again impressing.

 

Forest then took a deserved lead just before half time when a long cross that seemed destined to go out from Joel Lynch was headed back across after good work by Blackstock allowing David McGOLDRICK a simple tap in for his second goal at the City Ground in a week.

 

The weather took a turn for the worse in the second half as the heavy rain that featured so prominently in Wednesday’s game with Stoke returned. Birmingham created the first real chance when they almost equalised when Martin Taylor forced a brilliant save from Lee Camp. The incident also brought an end to Taylor’s game as he fell badly in the move and left the field on a stretcher with his leg in a splint.

 

With substitutions now being regularly made by both sides the new strike force partnership of Dele Adebola and Robert Earnshaw both impressed. Then against the run of play Birmingham got an equaliser when CARSLEY shot home from a Johnson cross. This spurred Forest forward and from a McKenna pass EARNSHAW then after some skillful play restored Forest’s lead with only 8 minutes remaining.

 

Earnshaw nearly scored again just before the end when he beat Joe Hart to the ball but failed to turn the ball in from an acute angle as Forest managed to easily see the remainder of the game out to seal a morale boosting victory.

 

This was a more impressive performance than the Stoke as Forest gave the fans a great deal of hope for the forthcoming season. We will wait to see whether the peformance was because Forest were too good or that Birmingham who have now lost 4 out of their 5 pre-season games were so poor.

 

With the league campaign about to start next week at Reading we eagerly await what selection will be made to start the season. My choice to start remains the same as my match report for the Stoke game though there are plenty of options available to manager Billy Davies.

 

My Starting XI : Lee Camp; Chris Gunter, Luke Chambers, Wes Morgan, Joel Lynch; Paul Anderson, Paul McKenna (capt), Radoslaw Majewski, Chris Cohen; Robert Earnshaw, David McGoldick

 

MATCH STATS

 

NFFC

Lee Camp; Chris Gunter, Luke Chambers, Wes Morgan, Joel Lynch; Joe Garner (Lewis McGugan 66), Paul McKenna [c], Radoslaw Majewski (Garath McCleary 66), Chris Cohen (Nathan Tyson60); Dexter Blackstock (Robert Earnshaw 60), David McGoldrick (Dele Adebola 60)

 

subs not used : Paul Smith, Aaron Mitchell, Paul Anderson, Arron Davies

 

Referee : A.Woolmer

Attendance : 6,735 (Away Fans 783)

 

GOALS

1-0     41 mins    David McGoldrick (NFFC)

1-1     80 mins    Lee Carsley (Birmingham)

2-1     82 mins    Robert Earnshaw (NFFC)

 

 

My Man of the Match :  Paul McKenna