Birmingham City 1-0 Nottingham Forest
- Published
Che Adams got his fifth goal of the season for Birmingham
Birmingham City climbed out of the Championship relegation zone as Che Adams' early goal secured victory over Nottingham Forest.
Adams cut inside and fired a shot past Jordan Smith into the far corner of the net after just five minutes.
Birmingham held off second-half pressure from Forest to claim their first victory in four matches.
A succession of fine saves from Blues goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak denied Forest an equaliser late on.
Kuszczak kept out substitute Jason Cummings with a terrific one-handed save to his left and denied Zach Clough in stoppage time as the Birmingham defence stood firm.
Former Forest boss Steve Cotterill made two changes to his Blues side which lost at Barnsley last time out, with goalscorer Adams and Stephen Gleeson coming into the starting line-up and making positive contributions.
Birmingham could have doubled their lead deep into stoppage time when Adams rounded Smith and found Sam Gallagher, whose goalbound effort was blocked by Michael Mancienne.
Birmingham assistant manager Lee Carsley:
"The world is a better place with a win on a Saturday.
"What we need to do is to follow up this win at Middlesbrough on Wednesday with the mindset that we can go away and get a result. That will be the test."
Nottingham Forest boss Mark Warburton:
"We gave away a soft goal when we made a mistake after five minutes. We gave our opponents something to cling onto and gave ourselves a hill to climb.
"We gave Birmingham something to hang onto and this meant they had 10 players behind the ball. If it had been 0-0, it would have been a different game.
"The goal changed the whole complexion and this is the fine margin at this level of football."
- Published12 November 2017
