Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Nottingham Forest: Player Ratings as Reds settle for point

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Nottingham Forest’s three-game winning run came to an end as they were forced to settle for a point against Blackburn Rovers.

On the face of things, it wasn’t a bad result for the Reds given that they were forced to defend for large parts of the contest.

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Adam Armstrong proved almost unplayable for the home side and he opened the scoring on 63 minutes by capitalising on a fortunate bounce from a Jack Robinson tackle.

Forest didn’t trail for long, however, and hit back just two minutes later through Joe Lolley. The 26-year-old smashed an unstoppable effort beyond Christian Walton from all of 25 yards.

After a frustrating night for the Reds we analysed the players’ performances and marked them out of 10:

Brice Samba – 8

Made a couple of top saves in the last ten minutes and once again looked assured between the posts.

Matty Cash – 6

Didn’t have his best night. The first-half, in particular, was difficult up against Adam Armstrong.

Joe Worrall – 8

Made a great block on the goal line with five minutes remaining and was neat and tidy throughout.

Tobias Figueiredo – 7

Looked an assured deputy to Michael Dawson and coped extremely well with the aerial threat of Danny Graham.

Jack Robinson – 6

Also struggled to cope with the impressive Armstrong in the second-half as Tony Mowbray swapped him over. Robinson did try and get Forest moving forward down the left-hand side.

Ben Watson – 7

Did what he had to with relative ease. Was tasked with marshalling the influential Bradley Dack and the Blackburn man cut a frustrated figure after being substituted in the second half.

Samba Sow – 6

Not Sow’s best game in a Forest shirt. Blackburn played extremely wide and that took the Malian out of the game for large periods.

Joe Lolley – 7

Scored another goal for the highlight reel and looked more like the Lolley the fans love to see. When he is driving at defenders he is a sight to behold.

Sammy Ameobi – 5

Ameobi was badly out of sorts but in his defence, he was utilised as a number 10 which should be an experiment best left alone.

Yuri Ribeiro – 6

Was on the end of a woeful challenge from Blackburn defender Darragh Lenihan early doors and that knocked his confidence. There is, however, definitely a future for the Portuguese left-footer on the wing.

Lewis Grabban – 6

Isolated for large parts of the game, although he did work hard to win the ball back. Tested Walton’s rearguard with a speculative volley early in the second half.

Substitutions

Joao Carvalho (Ameobi, 61′) – 6

If the little magician is fit he simply must play. Forest looked far more creative going forward when he entered the fray just after the hour.

Albert Adomah (Ribeiro, 72) – 5

Was forced to defend for large parts of his cameo appearance and struggled to make an impression.

Tiago Silva (Sow, 80) – 6

Was introduced to try and give Forest a foothold in the game, but struggled to touch the ball.