Nottingham Forest stood firm to deny Blackburn Rovers all three points on a frustrating night at Ewood Park.
The Reds stretched their unbeaten run to nine games but were forced to settle for a point in Lancashire.
Adam Armstrong was a menace throughout and after a drab first-half, he opened the scoring with a determined run and finish on 63 minutes.
This Forest side are made of stern stuff, however, and they weren’t behind for long. Just two minutes later Joe Lolley picked the ball up 20 yards out from goal and crashed an unstoppable effort beyond Christian Walton.
The final 20 minutes proved tricky to negotiate for the Reds and they spent the vast majority of it penned in their own half.
Sabri Lamouchi spoke after the win over Stoke about upping the ante with regard to performance levels. This wasn’t a game that will live long in the memory in that sense and the boss will be keen to move on.
But for Brice Samba’s smart stop five minutes from time Forest would have been defeated; he claimed well at the second attempt after another neat Blackburn move.
Next up for Forest is Brentford at the City Ground on Saturday. With the international break to follow the Reds will hope to get back to winning ways.
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Perhaps the frustrating aspect of tonight’s contest was that Forest failed to pounce after Lolley’s goal cancelled out Armstrong’s opener.
Rovers were defeated by Luton on Saturday and the crowd were clearly disgruntled when the Forest man struck so soon after the first goal.
It is perhaps a sign of how the Reds have progressed that a point away at Blackburn will be deemed two points lost, rather than a point gained.
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