Cardiff City 1-0 Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest's Joe Worrall and Cardiff's Anthony Pilkington tangle at the Cardiff City Stadium

Nottingham Forest were plunged deeper into relegation trouble as Aron Gunnarsson gave Cardiff victory.

The hosts were closest to scoring in a cagey first half as Peter Whittingham's thunderous long-range shot hit the bar.

Gunnarsson won it for Cardiff with a swerving first-time effort from 25 yards, though Apostolos Vellios almost equalised but also hit the woodwork.

Forest drop to 21st place in the Championship table, just one point above the bottom three.

Cardiff, meanwhile, climb up to 13th after a third successive home win.

A significant day at the foot of the Championship saw four of Forest's relegation rivals taking each other on, with Blackburn hosting Bristol City and Birmingham at home to Burton.

Perhaps mindful of how tight things were in the bottom half, Mark Warburton's side started a little apprehensively against Cardiff, who were the first to threaten with Whittingham's booming 30-yard shot which crashed against the crossbar.

Other than that and a powerful long-range effort from Forest's Mustapha Carayol, there was precious little in terms of scoring opportunities in the first half.

Cardiff's Kadeem Harris and Forest's Ben Osborn tangle at the Cardiff City Stadium

There was more entertainment near the dugout, where Cardiff assistant manager Kevin Blackwell and his opposite number David Weir had to be separated after frayed tempers almost led to a scuffle.

Forest appeared to harness that emotion at half-time, emerging after the restart with renewed vigour and attacking intent.

Carayol looked their likeliest source of a goal, unnerving the home defence with his direct and quick running.

Despite the visitors' improvement, it was Cardiff who made the breakthrough as Kadeem Harris' cross was only half-cleared, leaving the ball to bobble invitingly into the path of Gunnarsson, who unleashed a fierce first-time shot which swerved beyond Jordan Smith and into the far corner.

Forest rallied, with substitutes Vellios and Britt Assombalonga threatening - but the former wasted their best opportunity as his looping header bounced on to the bar, stretching their winless run away from home to 11 league games.

Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock:

"Gunnar normally whacks the pigeon off the top of the stand with those strikes. It was like a missile going into the top corner.

"I watched it all the way in and the goalkeeper had no chance. It was a cracking finish. I think he can do more in attack and should be pushing for 10 goals a season, but I'm delighted.

"I know people have said we've got nothing to play for, but we wanted to have a real go and I think we did that."

Nottingham Forest manager Mark Warburton:

"We created some good chances to score, but I'm disappointed we conceded a goal from 25 yards because I thought we did more than enough to get a point.

"We are where we are and I'm not getting away from that. But if we play like we did today and show the desire and work ethic we did, then we'll be okay. I hope the supporters saw that in our performance because this is a very tough place to come.

"We have to concentrate on ourselves now because if you don't do that in this league, you pay the price."