Resilient Forest Share The Points With QPR

Nottingham Forest travelled to automatic promotion hopefuls and league leaders QPR today and put in a performance that was resilient, spirited and one worthy of a side with automatic promotion aspirations of their own. For three quarters of the game, Forest had to play with 10 men, after having midfielder Radoslaw Majewski sent off in the 23rd minute for a rash challenge on Adel Taarabt.

It was a great start from the Reds', who were once again well backed by a travelling red and white army of over 2,500 fans. They filled both tiers behind the goal and gave great support to the lads throughout. That support thought they had been given the lead as early as the 1st minute, when Marcus Tudgay saw his shot hit the post. He was correctly adjudged to be offside, but it showed from early on that we hadn't come for a draw.

Rangers were slow to start and they were finding it difficult to stop Forest from coming forward in droves. However, when they did settle down they showed they had enough quality of their own to do some damage if the lads were not on their game.

The homeside took the lead on 16 minutes, through a cracking effort from midfielder Tommy Smith. After a neat passing move from the hosts, Smith picked the ball up out wide and ran at the Forest defence. He let loose with a shot from outside the box, that curled passed Camp and into the Forest goal.

Forest dusted themselves down and set about trying to get an equaliser. Things were going pretty well until young Raddy Majewski made the job doubly hard with only 23 minutes gone, by getting himself sent off. He made a two footed challenge on Adel Taarabt, which left referee Clattenburg with no other option but to pull out the red card.

It wasn't looking good you have to say, but this Forest side are made of stern stuff and they showed they do possess the team spirit and togetherness we've been hearing so much about in recent weeks. It's not so long ago that a Forest side in this position, would have capitulated and thrown in the towel, but fair play to Billy Davies, because he has a squad of players willing to fight and die for the cause.

That team spirit earned them a free kick shortly after the sending off and Lewis McGugan stepped up to take it. He hit a thunderbolt from 35 yards out, that in fairness was going well wide. Lady luck then played her part, as the ball struck McGoldrick and was deflected into the Rangers goal. It was no less than we deserved and the lads managed to hold on and go into the break on level terms.

The 2nd half saw the hosts try and make the most of their extra man, but Forest defended well and at times had to resort to just throwing themselves in front of the ball and on one occasion even heading off our own line. It wasn`t all backs to the wall stuff though and we did try to play football.

Although there were times in the second half when we were under extreme pressure and looking like we could cave in at any moment, the longer it went on without them getting in front, the more you believed we would hang on and earn a point. The entire back four stood up to the task well today, with Luke Chambers being the pick of the bunch and thanks to a never say die attitude, that hard work was rewarded with a point. At the final whistle, that hard work was recognised by the travelling faithful applauding everyone of the red shirts. We would have taken a point before a ball was kicked and even more so after going down to 10 men.

The result takes us up to 4th, just a point off 2nd spot and a good performance on Wednesday night away at Scunthorpe will ensure we take it. Things are looking bloody good for us at present, but we will be without Raddi for the next 3 games, which is a bit of a bugger to say the least.

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