Birmingham City 1-1 Nottingham Forest: Reds equalise with 98th-minute Lewis Grabban penalty

Nottingham Forest forward Lewis Grabban's goal was just his fifth in all competitions this season

Nottingham Forest equalised with a 98th-minute penalty against Birmingham City as both sides added another point towards Championship survival.

Lewis Grabban found the bottom corner with the last kick of the game after Lukas Jutkiewicz was adjudged to have brought down Scott McKenna.

Birmingham were seemingly on course for a deserved victory after defender Marc Roberts rose highest to head home an Ivan Sanchez corner in the 49th minute.

After Rotherham's 2-1 loss to Middlesbrough, both sides are now within touching distance of safety.

Grabban's leveller was only Forest's second shot on target, while the spot-kick awarded by referee Jeremy Simpson did seem soft with both players clashing after trying to win a header in the area.

Since his appointment in mid-March, Birmingham manager Lee Bowyer has changed his side's fortunes with Blues having now lost just one of their past seven matches.

There was an early worry for the West Midlands outfit with Scott Hogan limping off in the 19th minute.

Forest nearly opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time but Ryan Yates headed against the bar in a largely uneventful first period.

After taking the lead, both Roberts and Riley McGree had clear-cut chances to double Birmingham's lead.

But the hosts were punished for their sloppy finishing as they stay 19th, 10 points clear of the bottom three, and one point behind Forest who are a place above them.

Birmingham City boss Lee Bowyer told BBC WM 95.6:

"We should have won the game; we deserved to win the game. The effort the players put in, they've been robbed of three points.

"Instead of me talking about how good we were, we're now talking about the penalty decision at the end, which was wrong.

"We deserved to win the game. Unfortunately, through no fault of our own, we haven't."

Nottingham Forest manager Chris Hughton told BBC Radio Nottingham:

"I think, in the end, I have to give credit to the team and we have to look at it as a very good point.

"For the first 20 minutes I thought we were good and were the better team, but after that I thought we were second-best for the remainder of the game.

"I think it is one where I can't say we deserved a draw, but for the fact we pushed right to the end and sometimes you get it."