Well the reserves were out in force. Seaman, Adams, Selley, Jensen, Smith, Wright, McGoldrick and of course Merse were all out. Bartram continued in goal, with Keown replacing Tone. THe midfield was Davis Hillier, Schwartz, Parlour and Flatts with Campbell up front. TO be honest any sort of result looked like a major acheivement with that side. Some early pressure with Parlour looking threatening down the right promised some hope for the afternoon. Unfortunately you couldn't really see us scoring a goal. Forest who had gone 5 matches without one themselves demonstrated why with a woeful miss from Woan when clean through and a fine run and shot from Roy bouncing off a post. Forest had looked the more threatening and took the lead with a penalty. Bould and Keown seemed to leave the ball for each other and Bartram was left to pull down the man who was trying to round him. Pearce dispatched the penalty with great applomb, which sort of made you harp back to that night in Turin. Anyway 1-0 down at half time and it looked like it may end up that way. Most of the second half was dominated by us but we rarely looked like breaking down Forest. Roy always looked a threat but Collymore hardly figured. Forest managed to win a couple of corners and from one the ball was knocked on at the near post and looped onto the post. The rebound was blasted high into the stand by Collymore. As the game wore on you began to felt that we deserved something from the game just for the sheer effort the boys put in. Eventually it came. Schwartz's corner swung into the middle of the goal where even Keown couldn't fail to convert, totally unchallenged. Before the cries of "your not singing anymore" died out the Forest fans were. Schwartz dwelt on the ball in midfield and was disposed. Roy was then allowed to run and shot from 25 yards out. The sheer pace beat Bartram. Surely we couldn't come back for a second time. The boys however continued to battle away. With 14 minutes to go Dixon found his way forward on the right. He played the ball back to Parlour whose deep cross was met by Campbell at the far post. His superbly directed header left Davis with an open goal to head home. Paul Shaw replaced Flatts towards the end but this was a point that had been well deserved, particularly baring in mind the team that was playing. I thought Hillier done an admirable job in midfield, Parlour worked hard as ever. Davis looks to slow for my liking but improved greatly as the game went on. Flatts always looks promising but you can't help but fell the chap is just to small. A number of times he was easily brushed off the ball. Schwartz was very disappointing and hardly figured. Campbell seem to play much better out as the lone front man.
Then complete disaster struck just before midnight as we followed Millwall out of the hat. Three years running, what have we done to deserve this ??