Nottingham Forest maintained the pressure on Division One leaders
Middlesbrough by continuing Manchester City's Christmas hangover.
Two Pierre Van Hooijdonk penalties and a Kevin Campbell strike kept Forest
level on points and goals scored with Boro, but ruined former Forest boss Frank
Clark's first anniversary in charge at Maine Road.
Murtaz Shelia and Paul Dickov staged a City rally, but it was too little too
late as the home side slipped to a second successive defeat over the holiday
period and are now only one point ahead of bottom-placed Portsmouth.
This was no Christmas cracker despite the five-goal show in front of Maine
Road's biggest crowd of the season - 31,839.
But that did not worry the Forest fans as they taunted their former manager
with a chant of "Frankie, Frankie what's the score?".
Georgi Kinkladze had a penalty appeal waved away in the opening minutes and
Uwe Rosler wasted a glorious chance after he had been put through by Ian
Brightwell.
The German striker headed over and was left beating the ground in frustration
minutes later when he latched onto an incisive Kinkladze pass.
Just as he shaped to shoot, Forest defender Steve Chettle got back to deflect
Rosler's 15-yard drive onto the crossbar.
Forest midfielder Andy Johnson looked sure to score when he connected with
Campbell's short centre, but Tommy Wright pulled off a fine reflex save to keep
out the six-yard effort.
Wright came to City's rescue again with a one-handed save in palming away Ian
Woan's 12-yard shot for a corner.
But Wright was powerless to prevent Forest from taking the lead from the
flagkick when Michael Brown upended Steve Stone in the box. Van Hooijdonk
stepped up to smash the ball high to Wright's right in the 31st minute.
Forest went in search of a second after the break and Campbell outleapt
Brightwell, but headed narrowly over.
However, Campbell made no mistake in the 50th minute when presented with the
ball after Brightwell had failed to deal with Des Lyttle's cross, drilling the
ball past the helpless Wright.
It was 3-0 three minutes later when Wright brought down Campbell in the box.
Van Hooijdonk despatched the spotkick with the minimum of fuss, this time
sending the Blues' keeper the wrong way for his 20th goal of the season.
Shelia gave City a glimmer of hope when he pulled one back for the Blues in
the 56th minute, heading powerfully home from Kinkladze's cross.
That inspired City to press forward as Forest sat back and Dickov reduced the
deficit to one goal after 77 minutes when he slammed a shot against the post
which rebounded off Van Hooijdonk's ankle and trickled over the line.
City huffed and puffed, but could not deliver the equaliser, the best chance
falling to Kinkladze, who tried to surprise Beasant with a quickly taken
freekick, but failed.
Teams:
Man City: Wright, Brightwell, Shelia, Brown (Scully 73),
Vaughan (Van Blerk 45), Wiekens, Brannan, Russell, Dickov,
Kinkladze, Rosler.
Subs Not Used: Whitley.
Booked: Brannan, Dickov.
Goals: Shelia 56, Dickov 77.
Nottm Forest: Beasant, Lyttle, Rogers, Cooper, Chettle,
Johnson (Armstrong 86), Stone, Gemmill, Van Hooijdonk, Campbell,
Woan (Bonalair 41).
Subs Not Used: Hjelde.
Booked: Cooper, Woan, Bonalair.
Goals: Van Hooijdonk 31 pen, Campbell 50, Van Hooijdonk 53 pen.
Att: 31,839
Ref: A G Wiley (Burntwood).
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