Birmingham City 1-1 Nottingham Forest (EFL Championship) 21.04.21

A last grasp Lewis Grabban penalty saved Forest from defeat against Birmingham City and more importantly took the Reds a point nearer to securing Championship safety, but it wasn’t pretty at St Andrews in a dog fight between two sides that have largely struggled this season.

The first half lacked any real quality but the best moment was created by Forest just three minutes before the break when Freeman’s cross from the right found Ryan Yates racing into the box who crashed his header on to the crossbar.

Birmingham started much the brighter in the second half as Sanchez let fly left footed forcing Samba into a save before Marc Roberts, at the back post from a corner, wrestled himself away from Cyrus Christie to head home and put the Blues one up on 49.

Roberts long throw-ins caused Forest’s defence plenty to think about, but it was his poor header backwards from a Samba long clearance that let Lyle Taylor race through, but the striker fluffed his lines, evident of a player lacking confidence in front of goal.

Taylor shortly after replaced by Glenn Murray.

With a minute remaining and from a Forest free kick, Birmingham could have in fact wrapped things up when a break away lead to Riley McGee spinning inside the box and shooting straight at Samba who did well to stop with his feet, and deep into injury time from a hopeful ball into the box by Blackett, Yates headed back to Scott McKenna who headed at goal and in doing so was impeded by a Birmingham defender, the Referee awarding a spot kick which was nervously dispatched by Grabban who hit low and underneath goalkeeper Neil Etheridge to his right.

A grateful point in the end as Forest hit the fifty barrier. Still not out of the woods just yet, one win from three should do it. But where have we heard that before?

After the match, Reds Manager Chris Hughton stated “It certainly wasn’t the performance we wanted. For 20 minutes, I thought we were good and I enjoyed that period. But for 70 minutes, I didn’t think we were.” Birmingham Manager Lee Bowyer left fuming with a late penalty against his side saying “It’s wrong, it’s never been a penalty, I have looked at it back, he is there, they are coming together yes, but that happens when you have got one player running one way, another player running another way”

Forest next face Stoke City at the City Ground on Saturday.

Birmingham City: Etheridge, Colin, Roberts, Dean, Pedersen, Sunjic, Gardner (Harper 87), Hogan (Leko 19), Sanchez (McGree 63), Bela (Miller 87), Jutkiewicz.

Nottingham Forest: Samba, Christie, Worrall, McKenna, Blackett, Yates, Garner (Cafu 78), Freeman (Knockaert 64), Krovinovic (Grabban 64), Mighten, Taylor (Murray 63).

Venue: St Andrews

*Main image @NFFC Lewis Grabban scores the vital spot kick to earn Forest a point.