Championship: Nottingham Forest 1-1 Rotherham United
- Published
Dan Barlaser's penalty was emphatically struck beyond Brice Samba in the Forest goal
Nottingham Forest and Rotherham shared the points as Chris Hughton's first home game as Reds boss ended in a Championship draw.
Sammy Ameobi tucked in for Forest after Lewis Grabban and Joe Lolley had combined, to cancel out Dan Barlaser's thumping spot-kick following a foul on Billy Jones.
Ryan Yates came closest to a goal in the first half but was deemed to be offside, while Mickel Miller fired wide for Rotherham after cutting infield.
Cyrus Christie gave away a penalty by hauling Jones down when he slipped, and Barlaser drilled down the middle to open the scoring.
However, Forest piled on the pressure looking for an equaliser and after Lolley had hit the post and Christie forced a good save from Jamal Blackman, Ameobi found the net to earn a point.
Hughton's arrival at Forest brought a winning start and an end to a four-game losing run for the East Midlanders at Blackburn on Saturday and this point continues the improvement.
Goals remain something of a concern, with just three in the opening six games, but they had plenty of chances - with Grabban drilling his effort into the side netting after rounding Blackman as his run without a goal extended to 10 games.
Rotherham are currently without boss Paul Warne, forced to self-isolate at home after a family member contracted Covid-19, but the Millers have drawn both games now in his absence.
They responded well after Forest's early peppering of their goal to force their way into the game, and they too might have grabbed a win late on as Michael Ihiekwe caused problems with a couple of headers.
Nottingham Forest boss Chris Hughton told BBC Radio Nottingham:
"What you do is you want to get into a second half where you want a reaction from the players.
"Rotherham play with high intensity, they're very fit side, they close down all over the pitch using man-to-man so you have to be a good team to play around them.
"I wanted a reaction second half and I got that, we had enough good chances to win two football matches, on a good day we put them away and on a difficult day we don't.
"I'm pleased with the reaction but certainly it's a game we should have won."
Rotherham skipper Richard Wood told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"It was a good point in the end, they threw everything at us towards the end and we hung on and got a well-deserved point.
"We played some really nice stuff at times as well.
"We just have to stick together, they had some great chances, and it's about sticking together as a group, grinding out and getting the result."