What an end to probably our worst week of the season this year - after one point from a possible six, City stormed back into second place tonight with a well deserved win over Nottingham Forest. City fans could be forgiven for thinking the side was really on the slide after the heavy 3-0 defeat at Swansea last Saturday and a 2-2 draw at Watford on Tuesday - but if you really want evidence of a side on the downward turn, take a look at tonight’s opponents.
Forest have lost five out of six and have slipped out of the safety of the play-offs to seventh, while for Norwich the only real issue now is if we finish second or third. Tonight we did what we needed to do and heaped all the pressure back on Cardiff ahead of their game tomorrow.
Big injury doubts Grant Holt and Wes Hoolahan both started, with Holt alongside Simeon Jackson, who for me, had his best game in a City shirt tonight. Jackson’s time to shine would come later in the game, after an unbelievable start in which Forest took the lead with less than three minutes on the clock.
A back pass to John Ruddy was about to be cleared by the former Everton keeper when Nathan Tyson got in the way of the flight path and the ball bounced off his backside and into an empty net.
Norwich showed great desire to get back in the game and just as Watford overturned a 1-0 reverse on Tuesday, The Canaries bounced straight back. With ten minutes gone Holt headed home a free-kick and ten minutes before the break the City skipper sent Andrew Surman through to give City a 2-1 lead. That’s how the game finished but it doesn’t tell the whole story. City had great chances to score before Surman’s goal with Jackson involved in everything. He had a goal disallowed for offside, nearly beat Camp with a flick and made himself a constant nuisance down the left hand side.
Forest threatened too and looked great going forward. Lewis McGugan showed some blistering pace when he broke forward and rookie left back Brendan Moloney looks an excellent prospect. Forest seemed to suffer badly from missing players such as Dexter Blackstock. Kris Boyd was poor, Tyson went off early and Robert Earnshaw did nothing when he came on.
You get the feeling that if they had a decent striker, they’d really be a force in this league. Forest did threaten in the second half and John Ruddy pulled off some great saves and also showed some neat composure on the ball when he was called to a couple of times but as City huffed and puffed in their efforts to secure the three points our defence stood firm.
Anything less than a win tonight would have felt like we were out of the hunt for an automatic promotion spot, but under the electric atmosphere of the Carrow Road lights, we did the job. Four games to go against mid table teams and we could be up, let’s just hope Cardiff can drop some points asap.
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