Nottingham Forest 1-0 Bristol City: Tiago Silva free-kick sends Reds fourth
- Published
Tiago Silva's goal against Bristol City was his fourth for Nottingham Forest
A superb Tiago Silva free-kick ensured Nottingham Forest remain part of the automatic promotion race and consigned Bristol City to a third straight defeat since the Championship restarted.
The Portuguese midfielder brilliantly bent the second-half winner over the wall and beyond substitute goalkeeper Daniel Bentley just after the hour mark of a game that failed to reach any great heights.
The Robins' chances of taking something from the City Ground and hopes of keeping their diminishing play-offs aspirations intact took a further blow when Ashley Williams was shown a straight red card after appearing to kick Silva before then shoving Yuri Ribeiro.
Benik Afobe then wasted a huge injury-time chance to equalise, sending a free header wide, to allow Forest to move back to fourth in the table and to within four points of second-placed West Bromwich Albion, who are at Sheffield Wednesday in the late kick-off.
Defeat for Bristol City, following losses against both Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday since football's resumption, leaves them 12th in the table and six points off sixth-placed Cardiff City.
In a stop-start first half, heavily impacted by a number of injury stoppages, Afobe was a constant threat for the visitors.
But the Robins could do little more then create a series of half chances, with the forward wayward with two headers after testing Brice Samba with low shot from outside the box.
Niki Maenpaa's first involvement in the action at the other end ultimately forced the keeper off injured, with the Finn appearing to twist his ankle as he raced off his line to try clear along ball destined for Lewis Grabban.
Bentley came off the bench and was soon tested, making a fine save at his near post to keep out Matty Cash.
Tobias Figueiredo flicked a header over and Sammy Ameobi fired just off target as the hosts piled pressure on late in the first half - which ended with Cash becoming the latest player to require attention after being clattered by Andreas Weimann.
When Ryan Yates was brought down by Weimann on the edge of the D after the break, Silva stepped up with the game's only real moment of quality to curl in the set-piece winner.
Williams' moment of madness only made it harder for the visitors, but they went on to perhaps create their two biggest chances after going a man down.
A fine header from Ribeiro on the line, getting between Afobe and Famara Diedhiou as they closed in on a Jamie Paterson cross, proved crucial late on.
But Afobe will rue his missed chance in the 92nd minute, with a knock-down header from a corner finding him free six-yards out.
Nottingham Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi told BBC Radio Nottingham: "It's a massive result. That's two [wins] in a row, so it is a very important result.
"But the performance in the first half was not very positive. I think we deserve this result, but Bristol City played much better than us in the first half - they controlled the game but they didn't create a lot of situations.
"We changed some things and it was much better in the second half. In some games you need to win in a different way.
"It is three important points."
Bristol City head coach Lee Johnson told BBC Radio Bristol: "I'm sad for everybody and I apologise for the run in terms of not being good enough, but if we perform like that over the last six games we will actually have a chance. We have to take that into the Cardiff game.
"Apart from a poor, rash decision from a senior player, I honestly can't fault any of my lads today. They are gutted.
On Williams' red card, Johnson added: "It's disappointing. We fancied ourselves with 20 minutes to go and with seven minutes of injury time.
"There was still a fair amount of time to go and, to be fair, I thought we were the better side with 10 men with a couple of really good chances."