City Held to Stalemate by Battling Forest
Returned as Sub
By Chris O'Brien
February 1 2004
Nottingham Forest ended a run of six consecutive losses, holding the Bluebirds to a 0-0 stalemate at a windswept Ninian Park. Neither side managed to create many chances, and the draw was the fair result, with relegation-threatened Forest easily the happier of the two sides with the outcome.
| City Held by to Stalemate by Forest |
| At a cold and windy Ninian Park, the
Bluebirds were held to a 0-0 stalemate by relegation threatened Nottingham
Forest.
The two-time European Cup winners broke a six-game losing streak with a battling performance, in a game that created few chances and rarely looked like producing a winner. The predictable Lennie Lawrence surprised nobody with his team selection, with Chris Barker filling in for the suspended Gary Croft at left-back. Tony Vidmar partnered Danny Gabbidon at the heart of the Bluebirds defence, with Spencer Prior relegated to the bench. The weather was hardly suited to good football, with the gale force wind allowing the ball to sweep all over the park and both sides found it difficult to settle early-on. Forest started the better of the two sides, with Eugen Bopp forcing Martyn Margetson to make a save from long distance. The visitors were the better side for the opening 20 minutes, but failed to turn their possession into chances Paul Parry sent City's first chance of note wide of the post on the half-hour mark, but Forest still looked the most likely to score and had the best effort of the match minutes later when Gareth Williams' low-shot beat Margetson, but came back off the inside of the post. City finally started to show some drive as half-time approached, with Peter Thorne seeing his powerful shot saved by Gavin Ward, and Rhys Weston ballooned a shot wide minutes later so the two sides went in at the break on level terms. Forest were the brighter of the two sides in the early exchanges of the second-period, with Andy Reid raking havoc in the midfield with a number of mazy runs at the Cardiff defence. Marlon King had a close-range opportunity blocked by Martyn Margetson, and Williams went close one again as Paul Hart's side looked for their first goal in six matches. As the game reached it's conclusion, Lennie Lawrence went for broke throwing on strikers Andy Campbell and Alan Lee, who made way for Gareth Whalley and the ineffective Robert Earnshaw, who was dealt with very well by England international Des Walker. Lee's battering-ram style approach troubled the Forest defence at times, but his efforts were to no avail. Richard Langley had a last minute shot blocked by Walker, as Forest strived hard in the last few minutes to claim a well-deserved point which will bring some much needed morale back into their camp, after a recent run of woeful form. Still, Forest have still not won a league game since late October and the point yesterday wasn't enough to elevate them out of the relegation zone. The point takes the Bluebirds down to 11th in the table, and with a very tough month of fixtures in February, a place in the bottom half over the next few weeks looks ominous. The very impressive and vocal away following from Nottingham swelled the attendance to 17,913, the second highest crowd at Ninian Park this season. However, they bumper crowd witnessed a rather dull match and the harsh boos and muted applause that echoed around the terraces on full-time show that this was probably two-points dropped for City. Will the fickle fans return for the visit of Sunderland in three weeks time? Full Time - Cardiff City 0-0
Nottingham Forest |