Nottingham Forest 1 - 1 BLUES

Another dissapointing away day for Blues as a second half header from James Perch gave Nottingham Forest a share of the spoils at The City Ground.

3,152 Blues fans turned out for the midlands derby and got behind the boys from start to finish but despite James McFadden giving the travelling fans something to cheer about in the 13th minute it was the Forest fans going home the happier.

Blues boss Alex McLeish made several changes to the side that was beat 0-1 at St Andrews on Monday night, giving Marcus Bent his first start of the season and pushing the ever present Liam Ridgewell over to left back in place of Franck Quedrue who went down ill overnight. There was also a first start for on loan midfielder Nigel Quashie.

Blues started the brightest of the sides as it only took two minutes for Kemy Agustien to flash a left-footed half volley wide of the target from the left hand side of the area.

10 minutes later Blues were ahead. A Seb Larsson free kick was only half cleared towards the edge of the box which fell to Marcus Bent who flicked over a sublime ball to carve open the Forest defence where McFadden took the ball round keep Lee Camp before slotting the ball home from an accute angle.

Blues grew in confidence after the goal and began to produce the football the Blues fans crave with McFadden at the heart of the attacking display but the home side did pick up the momentum and on 40, Joe Garner's header from 14 yards out was thankfully held onto by Maik Taylor in the Blues goal.

There were no changes at the break for either side and with only seven minutes gone Forest were back on level terms when James Perch headed low at the back post as the Blues failed to clear their lines. This gave the home side the edge as they went on to dominant the second half in which Radhi Jaidi was lucky not to see red.

McLeish had strength on the bench and used it by bringing on Cameron Jerome and Kevin Phillips but it was Forest who had the majority of chances with Blues occasionlly hitting Forest on the break. Nathan Tyson arguablly had the best chance to land the killer blow to the visitors as he ghosted in behind the Blues defence, chesting the ball down only to see his effort go narrowly wide of the mark.

Elsewhere in the Championship results went against the Blues as Wolves opened up a six point lead at the top with a 2-0 home win over Burnley, but Blues stay second despite wins for Reading and Sheffield United. Blues now host Charlton next Saturday afternoon at St Andrews in what looks to be a must win game for McLeish's men.