Karanka still hanging on
Karanka insisted he was brought to the City Ground with a long-term vision in mind. He was moved by the vocal support he received from the Forest fans throughout the game in spite of his side’s abject start.
He said: “The fans have been like that every single day since I arrived. It is amazing to me. When I arrived in Nottingham I wanted this crowd to be proud of their team again.
“Now I think they are. Not today, obviously, but I think they are proud of these players and this team. The only thing I can say is thank you to them once again.
“The aim of everybody and the reason I took the job was to build something similar to what I did at Middlesbrough, which took two-and-a-half years. We wanted to build something with patience. This has just been the first year.”
Tunnicliffe struck in the ninth minute when the ball dropped to him following a corner. It set Millwall on the road to their second win in four days and three points clear of the relegation zone.
Steve Morison should have made the points safe for the Lions in the final minutes but struck the post after a lung-bursting run from fellow substitute Aiden O’Brien.
Forest offered little except for a couple of longrange efforts by Joe Lolley.
Millwall boss Neil Harris said: “The Boxing Day win over Reading was massive for us. It enabled everyone to relax a little bit today. A win at Ipswich on New Year’s Day would make it perfect, but we won’t get carried away just yet.”