Championship
February 9, 2013
Bristol City
2 - 0
Nottingham Forest
Championship
15:00 +00:00, February 9, 2013
Ashton Gate, England
Referee: C Pawson
Bristol City 2-0 Nottingham Forest
Scoring Summary
| Bristol City | Nottingham Forest |
|---|---|
| Steve Davies (50') | |
| Marvin Elliott (62') |
Teams
| Bristol City | Nottingham Forest |
|---|---|
| 1 Tom Heaton | 12 Karl Darlow |
| 4 Liam Fontaine | 3 Dan Harding |
| 5 Lewin Nyatanga | 5 Danny Collins |
| 19 Brendan Moloney | 15 Greg Halford |
| 17 Greg Cunningham | 36 Gonzalo Jara |
| 15 Stephen Pearson | 11 Andy Reid |
| 25 Marvin Elliott | 8 Chris Cohen |
| 21 Paul Anderson | 28 Radoslaw Majewski |
| 10 Liam Kelly | 7 Adlene Guedioura |
| 9 Jonathan Stead | 23 Dexter Blackstock |
| 16 Steve Davies | 24 Billy Sharp |
| Substitutes | |
| 22 Dean Gerken | Khaled Al Rashidi 35 |
| 3 Mark Wilson | Elliott Ward 32 |
| 2 Richard Foster | Simon Gillett 4 |
| 12 James Wilson | Lewis McGugan 10 |
| 26 Joe Bryan | Henri Lansbury 22 |
| 24 Bobby Reid | Darius Henderson 9 |
| 29 Wes Burns | Simon Cox 19 |
| Substitutions | |
| Wes Burns for Steve Davies (76) | Elliott Ward for Dan Harding (49) |
| Richard Foster for Paul Anderson (87) | Simon Cox for Gonzalo Jara (67) |
| Lewis McGugan for Radoslaw Majewski (79) | |
| Yellow Cards | |
| Greg Cunningham (52) | Greg Halford (61) |
| · Squads: Bristol City | Nottingham Forest | |
Bristol City manager Sean O'Driscoll declined to gloat about a victory over the club who sacked him so controversially at Christmas after just five months as manager.
O'Driscoll played down all talk of revenge before the game and after seeing second-half goals from Steve Davies and Marvin Elliott sink a Nottingham Forest team under caretaker manager Rob Kelly, he insisted the three points meant no more than usual.
"People asked me if I wanted to win more because we were playing Forest and I didn't understand the question,'' said O'Driscoll.
"How could I want to win more than usual? If that was the case I must have been approaching other games the wrong way.
"Forest are a great club with a great fan base. What they need is great owners.
"I got on with everyone there except the owners. It was nice to be cheered by their fans, but I would have been disappointed if they had insulted me after I left the club a point outside the play-off zone.
"It was all about Bristol City for me today and I'm pleased that with a number of key players absent we turned in a decent performance.''
Former Derby County striker Davies put the skids under Forest with a 50th-minute shot that took a deflection after being allowed to turn in a crowded penalty area.
Twelve minutes later midfielder Elliott, who had only arrived back from playing for Jamaica in Mexico on Wednesday 24 hours before the game, rose to head in a Stephen Pearson free-kick.
Forest lacked a cutting edge. Dexter Blackstock headed against the crossbar from their best chance on 23 minutes and Billy Sharp was denied by a brilliant Tom Heaton save in the second half.
Billy Davies, who takes over as Forest boss on Monday, elected to miss the game, leaving Kelly to bemoan a familiar failing.
"The biggest job for Billy will be to sort out the team's inconsistency because that has been our main weakness,'' said the caretaker boss.
"By looking at it coldly from the outside I am sure he will be able to come up with some ideas. Those of us close to the players know there is no problem with their level of commitment.
"We started both halves well and on another day Dexter would have scored with his header. But we defended poorly for the first goal and were disappointed to concede the second from a set-piece because we work hard on them.
"I am sure Billy was taking in another game. He will study this one on DVD and in any case he knows a lot of the players very well.''
It was City's third win in as many home games under O'Driscoll. Davies' goal was his 10th of the season from just nine starts.