Nottingham Forest reach play-off places with confident win at rivals Blackburn

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.

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