report v nottsforest 26/08/00

LET'S be brutally honest about this, Birmingham City are unlikely to pick up three easier points all season, particularly on opposition territory, than they did at the City Ground on Saturday.

As any manager will tell you, though, you can only beat what is put in front of you and while Blues made heavy weather of overcoming a mediocre Nottingham Forest outfit, an important objective was achieved.

The first league success of the season is on the board, and if Trevor Francis's men can follow it up with another win against Barnsley this afternoon, their indifferent start will take on a much healthier complexion.

An emphatic home defeat by Fulham in the full glare of the Sky TV cameras had left Blues supporters asking serious questions about their team's prospects of mounting another promotion challenge - even last Tuesday's 5-0 Worthington Cup romp at Southend had only partially allayed their concern.

But those fans who travelled to Nottingham witnessed a highly competent display from a compact unit who looked perfectly capable of being among the First Division contenders yet again.

Whether they can actually improve on the play-off place they have reached in each of the last two seasons probably depends on how long Geoff Horsfield is sidelined and how quickly Francis can find a prolific goalscorer to partner his Ł2.25 million record signing.

In most departments on Saturday, there wasn't a great deal wrong, but the manager made no secret of his dismay at the number of chances which went begging against a Forest side who almost invited trouble by leaving vast amounts of space down the right.

At times, Blues created openings which almost begged to be converted, yet they were ultimately grateful to an outstanding 88th-minute save from Ian Bennett, who dived to his left to push aside a blistering David Prutton drive which seemed destined for the bottom corner.

Even then, there was time for them to create two more chances, but even if had both gone in, 4-1 would still have offered only a conservative reflection of their overwhelming superiority.

The visitors were under pressure for no more than ten minutes immediately after half-time, when Forest's switch to a 3-5-2 formation prompted a sustained attacking spell which saw them reduce a two-goal deficit through Chris Bart-Williams' curling free-kick and almost equalise when the unmarked Prutton somehow scooped an Alan Rogers cross over the bar from six yards.

Yet in between times, Marcelo only narrowly failed to connect with a Peter Ndlovu pass which was hit a little too strongly and Bryan Hughes fired inches wide after the Zimbabwean had again been the provider.

Even when they were fleetingly on the ropes, Blues were perfectly capable of trading punches with their hosts.

Indeed, they were comfortable points winners long before the end and not all their missed opportunities were the result of incompetence.

The impressive Hughes, for instance, was denied by a fine Dave Beasant save after slicing through the home defence in a smart exchange of passes with substitute Dele Adebola, while Marcelo was unfortunate not to claim a hat-trick.

His 11th-minute header from Martin Grainger's deep cross smacked against a post and he was denied another heading opportunity by Tony Vaughan's outstretched arm, a handling offence which escaped the referee's attention.

"Vaughan clearly handled the ball," Francis said.

"I couldn't believe that the officials didn't see it. I didn't think it was a free-kick when Forest scored, either. It looked a good header from Michael Johnson when he was adjudgd to have fouled Andy Johnson."

Marcelo, though, still went home with a memorable souvenir, a superb 25-yarder which dipped over Beasant in the 16th minute to lay the foundation for a Blues victory which was cemented when Nicky Eaden scored in first-half stoppage-time with a powerful far-post header following Grainger's excellent pass and Hughes' accurate cross.

The ball ended up in Forest's net again on 74 minutes, only for Ndlovu to be ruled offside after a classy Danny Sonner-Hughes build-up and it really is impossible to overstate Blues' entitlement to all three points.

They can't expect to be so dominant in every match, but a few scorelines of a similar nature will soon see them upwardly mobile.