Ewood Park saw a share of the spoils in the first midweek home league game of the campaign after 90 seconds separated Adam Armstrong’s opener and Joe Lolley’s equaliser in a cagey 1-1 draw which, by way of their second-half performance, should have seen Rovers come out on top against playoff occupying Nottingham Forest.
After falling to defeat last time out at the hands of recently-promoted Luton Town, many were surprised to see Tony Mowbray only make one change to the side that started the weekend fixture. Bradley Johnson made way, as he dropped down to the bench, with Danny Graham replacing him, as veteran Stewart Downing shuffled over to occupy the vacant central midfield role, with Sam Gallagher taking up a wide position parallel to Adam Armstrong. Whilst the team was only slightly tweaked, the bench saw the return of fan favourite, Joe Rothwell as well as midfield combatant Corry Evans, both of whom returned to the matchday squad after spending the last week battling away at an illness that had emerged in the camp. Further pleasing news saw defensive pair, Derrick Williams and Greg Cunningham both make their 250th club career start, which would have been the cherry on the cake for the latter, after he was called up – alongside Darragh Lenihan – to the Republic of Ireland squad for the Euro 2020 Qualifiers, earlier on in the week.
As the atmosphere began to build inside a nervous Ewood Park, following the pre-match rituals, it was deemed that Nottingham Forest had won the coin toss and were awarded the kick-off, which put the onus on Lewis Grabban to start the game ahead of the 1,138 travelling supporters, all of whom were hoping that their early season run, which saw them not lose since the opening day of the season, at home to West Bromwich Albion, could continue in this game, as they knew that a win would propel them back to the summit of the league, providing other results fell in their favour.
The opening stages of the game – much like the rest of the first-half – was a quiet affair that only brought a handful of half-chances, with neither goalkeeper forced to overwork themselves in an effort to pull off anything other than ‘routine saves’.
The first opportunity to get anyone excited fell to Rovers and Adam Armstrong after eight minutes had been played. The pacey forward used his speed to blitz inside from a wide area whilst nutmegging Forest full-back, Matty Cash in the process. After eliminating the occasional full-back, Armstrong got on the end of his own nutmeg before lining up a low shot from the edge of the area, which trickled harmlessly into the gloves of Forest’s ‘keeper Brice Samba.
With the game returning into a possession battle, it wasn’t until the 20th minute until the next flash at goal occurred for Rovers, with Forest struggling to get a hold of the game from an attacking perspective, as Lewis Grabban remained isolated up top. Greg Cunningham and Armstrong combined well down the left-hand side, as the former fed the latter with a through ball. Armstrong received the ball wide on the left-hand side before fizzing in a pacey low cross across the face of goal, which was begging for someone – Sam Gallagher in particular – to poke it home at the back-post, but unfortunately for Rovers, both Gallagher and Danny Graham failed to anticipate the cross, as both remained rooted around the penalty area, watching the ball pass out for a turnover of possession in Forest’s favour.
The 22nd minute saw the game’s first booking after a combative tackle by Darragh Lenihan left Yuri Ribeiro dramatically rolling around in agony, despite Lenihan winning the ball first. Although the tackle could be heard from the McDonalds’ opposite, due to Forest’s appeal as well as Ribeiro’s scream, referee Steve Martin deemed the challenge worthy of a yellow card much to the surprise of the Rovers coaching staff, despite Forest’s calls for a red for Lenihan’s follow through.
The resulting free-kick was lofted into the box by Joe Lolley and was immediately deflected behind for a corner off a Rovers man, despite murmurs from the crowd claiming it deflected off Sammy Ameobi. The confusion surrounding the legitimacy of the corner was soon forgotten about, as Rovers got first contact quickly enough in order to clear their lines.
Perhaps Rovers’ best chance of the half came in the 26th minute when Bradley Dack fluffed his lines from the edge of the box. Some good build-up play by the Blues saw Cunningham deliver a low, fizzing cross into the path of Dack who opted to try and curl it towards goal, first time on the half volley. The playmaker thought he had less time than he did, which led to him taking the shot on quickly and scuffing it a couple of yards wide of the target.
Forest’s first attempt of the game came two minutes after Dack’s fluffed chance as Grabban was played through by Lewis Travis, after the midfielder poked the ball away from Samba Sow and into Grabban’s path. Grabban composed himself with a touch before going for placement, rather than power from outside of the area, which Christian Walton was equal to, as he dived down to his right-hand side to easily claim the slow-rolling ball.
On the 31st minute, Ameobi tried his luck from the edge of the Rovers box after Cash laid the ball off to him. The 6’4” winger used his surprisingly good balance to hold off Cunningham before cutting inside and trying his luck, but his effort was well blocked by Derrick Williams which saw the ball harmlessly loop up into the air and be plucked out of the sky by Walton.
Ameobi was soon involved in the action again, only two minutes later, except this time for the wrong reasons. The 27-year old fell into referee Steve Martin’s book after hacking Armstrong down on halfway, as the pacey frontman tried to counter-attack after a turnover in possession.
The first-half soon petered out, with neither side being able to break down the other’s respective defence, which led to only one minute of added time being added, before the rather dreary first period was called to an end by Martin, the official.
With the tie still up in the air and there for the taking for both sides, one would imagine that the half-time team talks of the respective managers wouldn’t have been too dissimilar given the relatively quiet first-half performance from both sides.
Tony Mowbray would have been satisfied with how Forest’s rather potent attacking threat had been nullified throughout the first period, especially after they had scored a hefty 15 goals in their opening nine fixtures before this game. The wily manager, however would have taken encouragement from the lively performance of Adam Armstrong, who caused stand-in full-back Matty Cash a lot of issues down the left-hand side, with Mowbray hoping this particular outlet a potential opening for Rovers could be just what they need to capitalise upon in order to find the net against a stern Forest defence.
Championship newcomer, Sabri Lamouchi would have equally been satisfied with his side’s defensive exploits, but rather dissatisfied with how they operated in an attacking sense, once they had possession of the ball. With Forest only having one shot on target, which came through Grabban, during the first period, the Lyon-born former Inter Milan midfielder would have been willing his side to risk themselves more, in the hope that they could put their good run of form – which had seen them return to the Championship summit, last Friday for the first time since August 2014 – to use.
Once the teams had refreshed and heard their instructions, they soon returned to the field of play and lined up prior to Rovers restarting the game from the kick-off.
After another cagey opening five minutes to the half, the second-half’s first opportunity fell to Gallagher who did well to get on the end of another Cunningham cross, but unluckily for the forward – who has come under recent criticism from the supporters for his lack of goals despite not lacking work-rate – he was unable to reopen his league tally for the Blues as his header lacked a clean connection and ballooned over the bar.
Moments later, Forest burst forward, and Ribeiro hit a deep cross aimed at Ameobi at the back-post. Fortunately for Rovers, Cunningham was there and alert enough to clear the danger behind for a Forest corner. The subsequent corner fell to Wigan’s 2013 FA Cup winning captain, Ben Watson, who saw his wayward effort laser over the bar.
On the 58th minute, Grabban tried to put Forest ahead with a volley from just outside the area. A counter by Forest saw the ball cleared by Lenihan, only as far as Grabban who hit it first-time, straight into the glove of the waiting Walton.
The first change of the evening occurred soon after Walton’s save from Grabban, as Sam Gallagher departed the field of play with the returning Joe Rothwell taking his place after fully recovering from an illness which kept him out of the away win at Reading and the home defeat to Luton Town.
On the hour mark, Stewart Downing was book for a foul on Joe Lolley.
Soon after the free-kick, Forest made their first change as Sammy Ameobi was replaced by João Carvalho, as Lamouchi tried to add some more creativity to his lacklustre side.
The game soon burst into life with the creativity it craved, on the 63rd minute as Adam Armstrong managed to use his pace and raw attacking ability to open up the scoring in a game which badly needed it. Rovers won the ball back through Cunningham’s interception, inside their own box, before a passage of deep passing led to the counter-attack and the eventual breakthrough. The ball was eventually fed to Downing, who played the ball into Dack on halfway. Dack instinctively knew where Armstrong was, on the half-turn, as he swivelled before placing a magnificent through-ball into the 22-year old’s path. Armstrong managed to initially get away from both Jack Robinson and Joe Worrall before trying to slide the ball across into the path of the onrushing Danny Graham. Armstrong’s path was half-blocked by Robinson who simultaneously slid in to try and block a potential shot, but the ball ricocheted back to an unrivalled Armstrong who nonchalantly slotted the ball between the on-rushing Samba and the near-post to net his second goal in three games and give Rovers a 1-0 lead, which on the balance of play, they probably just about deserved.
Sadly, for Rovers and their supporters, their defensive Achilles heel soon kicked in as they let their lead slip almost 90 seconds after taking it. Forest controlled the ball well from the kick-off as they found space within Rovers’ midfield for Joe Lolley to operate in. Sow found Lolley in a tight pocket of space, with Travis for company. The talented midfielder managed to wriggle himself free of Travis and find half-a-yard of space, around 25-yards out from goal, before hitting a well-struck shot, which bounced a few yards ahead Walton, making it difficult to judge through bodies, before nestling into the bottom left-hand corner to restore parity between the sides.
From the kick-off, Rovers upped their ante and tried to push forward in order to try and regain their lead. On the 70th minute, Adam Armstrong continued his fine form on the night in order to try and add an assist to his tally. His deep cross fell to Rothwell who tried his luck with a volley from close range, but saw his effort sliced straight into the side-netting.
Moments later, Forest made their second change of the evening as Yuri Ribeiro was hauled off with Championship stalwart Albert Adomah coming on in his place.
Adomah wasted no time getting in on the action after being introduced, as on the 74th minute, he utilised his pace in order to get behind Elliott Bennett and bare down on goal. Carvalho managed to slide through Adomah as the substitutes combined to confuse Bennett, before the latter tried to get a shot away only to be denied by a sublime goal-saving tackle from the Rovers captain, who not only got the ball without any of the man, but managed to keep it in play and get Rovers back in possession.
Moments after, Cash tried his luck from distance, but saw his effort flash wide of the target.
The final Forest change came with exactly, 20 minutes left as Sabri Lamouchi freshened up his midfield with Samba Sow being replaced by Tiago Silva.
Joe Rothwell soon burst back alive on the 82nd minute, as he picked the ball up from deep before trying his luck from around the same distance which Lolley scored from earlier in the half. Rothwell however didn’t manage to find the back of the net, but did manage to force Forest shot-stopper, Brice Samba into a fine save, as the Congolese keeper tipped the effort behind for a corner.
Before the corner was taken, Rovers made a double substitution that, before this season, would have been unheard of. Both Bradley Dack and Danny Graham saw their numbers go up on the board – probably for the first time ever as part of a double change – with Lewis Holtby and Dominic Samuel on as their replacements, as more energy and drive was added to Rovers’ quest for a late winner.
Dominic Samuel almost blew the roof off of Ewood Park, as he nearly netted his first goal since his 13-odd month injury layoff. Downing’s corner was nodded towards goal by Williams, which saw Samba juggled the ball up into the air, away from Samuel’s head, before the ‘keeper claimed the ball and began a Forest counter-attack, which Rovers cut shot.
The game blew into life in the closing stages as the next opportunity fell to Downing whose right-footed effort was blocked nigh-on the line by Worrall, which saw the ball fell into the path of Samuel who saw his own shot denied as Rovers earnt another corner after some brilliant blocks by the away side.
The flow of constant pressure on the Forest goal ended on the 88th minute as Adam Armstrong struck a wayward snapshot from around 25-yards out that ended up hitting the back of the Blackburn End.
The final attack of the game fell to Elliott Bennett who struck a well hit effort from just outside the penalty area which Samba parried. Rothwell, who was lurking, was unable to connect with the spilt ball as Samba comfortably claimed the ball.
Despite four minutes of added time being added at the end of the game, the Rovers players huffed and puffed without being able to clinch victory, as after a few more half-chances flashed across the face of goal with no end product, referee Steve Martin called time on a game that suddenly burst into life, and Rovers should have arguably won, despite the lacklustre first 45 minutes.
After highlighting how ‘poor’ Rovers were here, on Saturday evening, there was some scepticism ahead of the game, that this ‘summary section’ may have been lacking in detail, given how good Forest were in the lead up to this fixture. Whilst there was never an expectation for Forest to come to Ewood and ‘roll Rovers over’, it would be wrong to admit that nervousness wasn’t one of the pre-match feelings ahead of kick-off. Thankfully, the performance banished those nerves – despite the Lolley goal returning them momentarily – after watching Rovers pummel Forest for most of the second period. Despite being as close to the perfect performance you can get, without winning it, this game proved that Rovers, not only have the quality to match any team in this division but have the midfield craft and energy to back it up. Whilst the striking department will continue to be debated among the supporters, there is no doubt that Armstrong was unplayable throughout the whole 90 minutes, as was Stewart Downing, who rightly received the Man of the Match award from the club’s sponsors. Although the chances are being created, it is now up to the forward players – including the returning Dominic Samuel – to prove that they are capable of being the main man in a side that has, for a number of years now, relied on the old head of Danny Graham.
Looking towards the league table, as of Wednesday evening, Rovers have dropped down one place to 12th, with 14 points and a zero goal-difference, courtesy of Wednesday’s fixtures. Despite this, there are positives to take in that Queens Park Rangers, who are next on the fixture list, fell to a 3-0 away defeat at the hands of Cardiff City.
Speaking of upcoming fixtures, the Blues return to action against QPR on Saturday 5th October at 3pm, at the at the recently renamed Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium, before the international break kicks in. Once the players return from their fortnight away, Huddersfield Town are pencilled in to visit Ewood Park, in-front of the Sky Sports cameras at 12:30pm on Saturday 19th October. Following the tie with Danny Cowley’s relegated Terriers, the Saturday/Tuesday grind returns, with Rovers set to travel to the St. Andrew’s Trillion Trophy Stadium, where indifferent Birmingham City await them on Tuesday 22nd October at 7:45pm.
