Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Nottingham Forest: Steve Cooper's side climb into top six

James Garner's first-half strike and Brennan Johnson's penalty helped Nottingham Forest move into the Sky Bet Championship play-off places after they ran out 2-0 winners over 10-man Blackburn at Ewood Park.

Manchester United loanee Garner grabbed the first goal when he slotted past Thomas Kaminski and matters were made even worse for the home side when Darragh Lenihan was brandished a red card early in the second half.

Johnson's penalty in the final minutes made sure Forest took all three points back to the East Midlands while Blackburn fell out of the promotion spots.

The first real chance of the game fell to Rovers as a lovely free-kick fell into the path of John Buckley, but his initial shot was saved by Brice Samba before Ben Brereton Diaz from the narrowest of angles saw his goalbound effort cleared off the line by Scott McKenna.

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The visitors were next to come forward and almost had the breakthrough when Keinan Davis' cross-cum-shot fell to Max Lowe, whose effort crashed into the side netting, much to the disappointment of the travelling Reds supporters.

Forest had the opener in the 22nd minute through Garner as Davis charged into the Rovers half to slip in his team-mate for a cool finish past Thomas Kaminski.

Three minutes before the break Blackburn countered with Joe Rothwell, who rushed into the area before his cross was cut out by Steve Cook before it could reach Brereton Diaz, there waiting to tap into an empty net.

Aston Villa loanee Davis terrorised the Blackburn defence throughout the first half and nearly rounded off a perfect display when he fired over the crossbar after a superb solo run.

Blackburn were reduced to 10 men in the 53rd minute when defender Darragh Lenihan was shown a second yellow card for lunging in on Jack Colback.

The game opened up following the sending-off and Blackburn almost had an equaliser from a swift breakaway as Sam Gallagher saw his shot blocked by McKenna.

Seconds later, Forest nearly doubled their advantage but Johnson was denied by Kaminski.

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And midway through the second 45 minutes at Ewood Park, objects were thrown from the home crowd in the direction of Forest goalkeeper Samba.

After being identified, an individual admitted to the offence and has been handed a three-year club ban by Blackburn.

The 10 men of Blackburn found another gear after the red card and were arguably the better side, with substitute Tyrhys Dolan hanging the ball into the box but Gallagher failing to guide his header past Samba.

Against the run of play Johnson broke forward but his shot was saved by Kaminski and Sam Surridge's follow-up effort went a whisker wide of the far post.

Chile international Brereton Diaz's deflected effort fell kindly into the grateful hands of Samba between the Forest sticks.

Forest rubber-stamped the three points with a 90th-minute penalty which Johnson smashed home after Surridge was brought down by Jan Paul Van Hecke inside the area.

What the managers said...

Blackburn's Tony Mowbray: "We missed some amazing chances to score in the game. We have to accept it's not quite going our way at the moment, some of the situations where we had really good chances. Any team that does well has to suffer and we're suffering a little bit at the moment. I think there's lots of evidence that we're doing alright, we missed an amazing chance tonight to get in front, we created enough chances to score multiple goals but I've got no concern.

"I don't want to talk about the officials tonight. I sit here most weeks and talk about the quality of the officials in the EFL so let's get on with it."

Nottingham Forest's Steve Cooper: "I thought we more than deserved the win today. Second half especially after the 10 men, really we should have run away with it, we could have and should have scored four or five. But we did not quite show the composure or the decision-making that we showed for the first goal but we kept getting in.

"There were so many fouls on us. It was feisty game and I think we did really well to compose ourselves, we could have lost our heads a little bit the way we were treated."

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