Blues’ Jota too hot to handle
CHE ADAMS takes some stopping when it comes to getting goals.
He backed himself to take a penalty and clinch Birmingham’s win ahead of regular spot kick man Gary Gardner.
Just as well Adams put it away then for his 16th goal of the season.
“Gardner is the penalty taker,” said Blues manager Garry Monk.
“So it’s just as well Adams scored.
“It was always going to be Adams wasn’t it, even though Gardner was coming up the pitch and would have been the first one to take it.
“Adams is so confident at the moment.
“Gardner is our penalty taker, but there was no issue.”
Southampton and Burnley both wanted to pay £10m a few days ago to take Adams into the Premier League, but he stayed and Monk said: “He’s fully committed to Birmingham. Even when speculation first started a month or so ago I saw no change in him and in the last few days of the window, when things became a little bit more serious, there was no change whatsoever.
“Adams is maturing not just as a footballer, but as a person as well.
“I’ve had plenty of discussions with him and, if anything, I’ve seen someone who is determined to do well for Birmingham City.”
The penalty in added time came after Forest defender Yohan Benaloune had been sent off for handling Adams’ header.
The penalty was Adams’ fifth successive league goal. He’s hot and so is Jota who got a 13th-minute cracker. Monk pulled off a master stroke by switching play-maker Jota to a more forward, central role behind twin strikers Adams and Lukas Jutkiewicz. Forest were flummoxed. Jota’s goal was a thing of beauty.
Jutkiewicz got in a glancing a header from Gardner’s pass for Jota to control, beat his man superbly with a flick and then drove in his shot.
Jota could have had another in the second half. But, free of everybody as Birmingham hit Forest at pace yet again, he sent his 62nd-minute shot straight at Forest goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon.
Ben Osborn also cleared a Gardner header off the line as Blues dominated. Leo Bonatini’s volley that flashed wide was as close as Forest got to saving the game.
Manager Martin O’Neill has got a job on his hands now to fire Forest into the play-off places.
Two defeats in his first three games is not exactly lift off and O’Neill says:
“I have to find out about the players and not lose ground at the same time.
“A defeat knocks you back, but I am confident it can be done.
“I hadn’t realised, until it was mentioned to me, that the football club has not won back-to-back games since September.
“That is not something that a relegation side should be looking at, never mind a side trying to get into the play-offs.”