Sabri’s battlers get away with a point as Yates sees red
SABRI LAMOUCHI made no attempt to excuse the Ryan Yates challenge that left Forest with 10 men.
Instead, the visiting boss backed referee Craig Pawson for punishing the lunging 56th-minute challenge on Adam Nagy.
He also praised the spirit of his players in surviving the setback against their fellow promotion contenders.
The Frenchman said: “Adam has made a mistake with his tackle and I could see why the red card was shown.
“It was not an aggressive challenge but more the result of enthusiasm, which isn’t a bad thing to see in a young player.
“Adam was very angry and upset with himself after the game because he knew what he did could have cost us an important result.
“But the important thing is that he learns from it. Today the other players have made sure we didn’t lose with ten men and I am so proud of them for that.”
Forest had looked the better side until the sending off but then had to survive late pressure from opponents throwing caution to the wind.
Tommy Rowe and substitute Rodri wasted great late chances to clinch City, who hit a post in the 55th minute through Andreas Weimann’s deflected cross, all three points.
But Forest could also point to a bad miss by Lewis Grabban when he volleyed wide with only Dan Bentley to beat.
City head coach Lee Johnson said: “I didn’t get a clear view of the sending off, but I’m told it was a two-footed challenge.
“I don’t think they could have any complaints. Forest are a very good side and I expect them to be up there challenging when it matters most.
“We lacked a bit with our end product today, but overall I was delighted with the performance.
“A number of our lads only got back from international duty on Thursday, yet there was no sign of any tiredness or lapses in concentration.
“We tweaked one or two things tactically at half-time, which had an effect and in the second half we got into some great positions without testing their goalkeeper enough.
“That was the one thing that was a little bit disappointing. But we are gradually getting key players back from injury and there is a lot to look forward to.
“The players are giving me everything. We now move on to West Brom in midweek and will go there in confident mood.”
Lamouchi added: “Bristol have a lot of positive and talented attacking players but we restricted them and our goalkeeper did not have to make many saves.
“We deserved our point and missed one very good chance to take all three. As always, the fans were incredible.”
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