Lee Bowyer reveals key frustration as Birmingham City beaten by Nottingham Forest

Birmingham City boss Lee Bowyer says the key frustration about Blues right now is their lack of quality in the final third against teams.

The Blues were beaten 2-0 by Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday as their winless run on the banks of the River Trent was extended to six games. Keinan Davis gave the home side the lead inside the first five minutes with a powerful drive from a tight angle before Scott McKenna doubled their advantage late in the second half. Blues started slowly but, after half-an-hour, they grew into the game and soon began to create chances of their own.

Scott Hogan's clever footwork allowed him to beat Tobias Figueiredo, although his end-product lacked any positive direction. Moments later, Kristian Pedersen's pull-back trickled across the six-yard box needing just a simple touch to level the scores. Taylor Richards provided Blues' first shot on-target when he found space on the edge of the penalty area; his strike lacked substantial power, however, and was picked up well by Brice Samba.

It was a similar story during the second-half though and - after Neil Etheridge was knocked unconscious in a collision with Djed Spence - Scott McKenna doubled the hosts' lead. Speaking after the game, Bowyer said he felt the game had been evenly-poised between the two sides and that they could have taken more from the game if they had better accuracy when in-front of goal.

“If you take the goal away from Forest, I thought we were the better side in the first half – I felt we asked a lot of questions of them but we lacked that little bit of quality. That was the difference on the day.

“I thought there wasn’t much between us during the second half. Once they got the second goal that was it, game over,