Forest were forced to put their hopes of celebrating automatic promotion on
firm hold by a hard-working Stockport County side which just would not let them
out of their sight.
Forest dominated a first-half full of flowing football.
After missing several chances in the early stages it was no surprise when
Forest took the lead through the ingenuity of Chris Bart-Williams, whose
craftily-rolled free-kick was converted with a shot on the turn by prolific
Dutch marksman Pierre Van Hooijdonk to put Forest ahead 1-0.
But Stockport hit back to equalise within three minutes from their first
corner, headed in from close range by Brett Angell.
Before half-time Forest might have extended their lead but for the excellent
goalkeeping of Eric Nixon who saved from Bart-Williams and Hjelde in successive
minutes.
Forest's fluid football continued in the second-half, but they will have left
rueing the hatful of missed chances from centre-forward Kevin Campbell who was
thwarted three times in succession by the excellent Nixon.
Late in the second-half Campbell might have had a penalty but was turned down
by referee Danson to the disgust of the travelling support.
To everyone's surprise Stockport took the lead on 67 minutes through Brett
Angell who glanced a header in at the far post, taking advantage of hesitancy in
the Forest area.
But Forest restored matters at 2-2 a minute later through a thunderbolt from
midfielder Andy Johnson. Before the end both sides had chances to seal victory,
but Forest were thwarted by the woodwork after Woan's header had struck the bar
in the final minute and at the other end Wilbraham slashed his shot across the
face of the goal when clear 10 yards out.
Forest's manager Dave Bassett was philosophical about the result: "I never
thought that today would be the decider that it had been built up to be. County
worked their socks off and a draw was a fair result on the day."
Teams:
Stockport: Nixon, Connelly, Searle, Byrne, Flynn, McIntosh, Cook,
Travis (Phillips 83), Angell, Wilbraham (Grant 90), Cooper.
Subs Not Used: Gray.
Booked: Flynn.
Goals: Angell 29, 67.
Nottm Forest: Beasant, Bonalair, Rogers, Hjelde, Chettle,
Johnson, Stone, Gemmill, Van Hooijdonk, Campbell (Woan 86),
Bart-Williams.
Subs Not Used: Pascolo, Armstrong.
Booked: Rogers, Stone, Bart-Williams.
Goals: Van Hooijdonk 26, Johnson 67.
Att: 9,892
Ref: P S Danson (Leicester).
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