Warburton back to foil Forest
SABRI Lamouchi refused to put the knife into his wasteful Nottingham Forest players as they were held by QPR.
Mark Warburton returned to his old club to frustrate their Championship promotion hopes, as his Rangers side manfully held out for a point.
Lamouchi saw his side miss some good opportunities, particularly during a first half when they also had a Joe Worrall header ruled out when it was judged the ball had been moving when Joe Lolley delivered the decisive corner.
Lamouchi said: “Two more points today would have changed a lot. We missed an opportunity and it is not the first time.
“We must keep going. We need to play in the same way and, in the last third, we must find more efficiency.
“We created some chances but, unfortunately, it was not enough. We missed the last touch, the last pass, the last piece of the jigsaw. We played well, we ran a lot, we fought hard, but it was not enough for the victory.
“Offensively we missed numbers in the box, we missed the last pass and we missed the vital touch in the box. All the time, it is the small details.”
Forest thought they had taken the lead when Worrall flicked home a header from a Lolley corner but, with QPR almost ready to restart the game in the centre circle, the goal was ruled out as the ball had been moving when Lolley struck the corner.
Replays showed it was the right decision, but the lengthy delay in making the call seemed curious.
Forest came close to breaking the deadlock moments later when Sammy Ameobi hit a driven shot, which Liam Kelly saved brilliantly, as he pushed it over the bar with the slightest of touches.
Lewis Grabban fired a decent chance over the bar, Lolley drove an effort wide, after making room for himself with a driving run, and Adama Diakhaby had a powerful strike bravely blocked in the box.
The home side continued to look a threat from corners, with Tiago Silva almost scoring directly from one, as his curling ball bounced away off the bar.
Forest were unfortunate not to be ahead at half-time, having dominated for long spells.
Grabban flicked a header across goal and wide as Forest picked up where they had left off after the break. Lolley then cut inside from the right but saw his shot easily saved by Kelly at the near post – and the winger missed one last chance to break the deadlock in injury time, when he headed wide.
Warburton, who managed Forest for nine months in 2017, admitted that it had meant a great deal to see his side produce a gritty display against his former club.
“Obviously it means a bit more. When you have managed a great club like Forest you want your team to come here and do well, it is as simple as that,” said Warburton.
“Forest are battling hard, they are pushing hard. We had to stand up as a team and we did.”