BIRDS HIT BY SILVA BULLET
New West Brom star Robbo punishes old club
PRESTON cannot have expected to face Callum Robinson so soon after selling him to the Premier League last summer.
MATCH STATS
Johnstone 7, O’Shea 7, Ajayi 7, Hegazi 7, Townsend 7, Livermore 8, Harper 7, MOTM Pereira 9 (Phillips 73, 6), Krovinovic 7, Robinson 8 (Grosicki 79, 6), Robson-Kanu 8 (Austin 85)
Rudd 8, Fisher 6, Bauer 6, Davies 7, Hughes 6, Pearson 6, Johnson 6, Barkhuizen 6 (Stockley 84), Browne 6, Maguire 6 (Potts 85), Nugent 5 (Sinclair 78, 5)
Kevin Friend
Dabo’s cross for his third goal in four games. Now City have another big promotion battle with Sunderland on Sunday.
TIAGO SILVA broke Nottingham Forest’s decade-long winless hoodoo at Cardiff to move his side within three points of the automatic promotion places. Cardiff’s play-off hopes look to have gone up in smoke after back-to-back defeats.
But the hosts started well and a clumsy challenge at the back from Matty Cash on Josh Murphy should have resulted in a Cardiff penalty but referee Steve Martin waved the protests away. Bluebirds were still licking their wounds when Forest caught them cold within three minutes of the second period. Silva picked out Lewis Grabban with a long ball before charging into the area and burying the striker’s cross into the corner of the net.
Only some heroic defending from Joe Bennett denied Alfa Semedo late on and frustration spilled over at the end as teammates Callum Paterson and Leandro Bacuna had to be separated (above).