An early goal by Ashley Ward was enough to keep Blackburn Rovers' hopes of a
play-off place alive at the City Ground.
He struck in the seventh minute to give new manager Graeme Souness a second
successive victory - and it was no more than they deserved.
Blackburn bossed the game for long periods and it was a surprise in some ways
that only Ward's goal settled the issue.
He had the simple task of scoring from a couple of yards out after David Dunn
and Damien Duff have split open the Forest defence.
With Dunn and skipper Garry Flitcroft dominating the central midfield area,
Blackburn pulled most of the strings without creating too many more clear-cut
openings.
But while they move on to thoughts of the Premiership, Forest are left looking
over their shoulder at the unpleasant thought of a relegation battle in the
coming weeks.
Forest have now taken just two points out of their last 15 and disillusioned
supporters were left to vent their feelings at half-time and the end.
It could have been worse for them had Blackburn stepped up the gear that they
always seemed to have in hand.
They had first-half openings when Ward shot into the side-netting and then
Christian Dailly headed wastefully over the bar from Dunn's free kick.
Forest boss David Platt rang the changes in a bid to find some inspiration in
the second half but Blackburn only rarely looked in any kind of danger.
In fact, Forest's best chance of a goal came on the half hour when young
striker Marlon Harewood turned the otherwise impressive Craig Short but saw Alan
Kelly produce a flying save.
Ian Woan, one of the three substitutes used by Platt, created a second-half
chance after chesting the ball down to Trinidad striker Stern John but the
tireless Dunn got in a vital block.
Teams:
Nottm Forest: Beasant, Louis-Jean (Lester 70), Hjelde,
Calderwood, Brennan (Woan 46), Prutton, Bart-Williams, Johnson,
Rogers, Freedman (John 52), Harewood.
Subs Not Used: Crossley, Gray.
Booked: Hjelde.
Blackburn: Kelly, Grayson, Short, Dailly, Harkness,
Johnson (Gillespie 57), Dunn, Flitcroft, Duff, Ward,
Blake (Ostenstad 79).
Subs Not Used: Miller, Jansen, Broomes.
Goals: Ward 7.
Att: 16,823
Ref: K Leach (Codsall, Staffs).
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