Forest as Villa enjoy home comforts
Matt Mills to Adomah. Forest keeper Jordan Smith had to dash from his line in an attempt to avert the danger but Adomah calmly side-stepped the keeper to slide the ball into an empty net.
The visitors’ possession was good but they appeared unable to find a finishing shot which played into the hands of the home team.
Kodjia was given a wonderful opportunity to increase Villa’s lead only to fumble an accurate right-wing cross from new recruit Robert Snodgrass.
Tendayi Darikwa should have produced a better finish for Forest with an effort he fired into the side-netting as he caught Villa on the retreat.
A bad mistake by Mills allowed Keinan Davis to put Adomah clear just inside the penalty area but Smith was able to smother his
20-yard shot. Forest finally found a goal in the
53rd minute when Murphy was on hand to grab the equaliser with a low shot past Sam Johnstone.
That goal visibly upset Villa’s defence, which went into panic mode as Forest suddenly realised they had a real chance of taking control.
But Bruce’s side bounced back to regain the lead with Hourihane scoring direct from a free-kick on the hour mark.
Kodjia went on a solo run only to be impeded by Ben Brereton, who was given a yellow card for his trouble.
Snodgrass had previously taken Villa’s free-kicks but on this occasion the Irish international stepped up to curl his effort wide of the wall and into the right corner.
Forest boss Mark Warburton was left Ryan Sessegnon O Langford frustrated that his side took nothing from the game despite a strong second-half showing.
The former Rangers chief said: “It is frustrating as we came out in the first 15 minutes of the game and we were very good.
“We dominated, looked bright and then we gave away a very poor goal again and find ourselves 1-0 down.
“The 20 minutes after that we were really poor and I think it was the worst we have been in the six months or so I have been here. We looked lethargic, we didn’t get out there and we had words at half time as a group.”