Soccer-Forest stem tide of defeats with home draw against Villa

NOTTINGHAM, England : Nottingham Forest held visitors Aston Villa to a 1-1 draw in the Premier League on Monday, halting a run of five consecutive defeats and moving off the bottom of the table.

The draw took Forest into 19th place on five points from nine games, climbing above East Midlands neighbours Leicester City. Villa stayed 16th but moved onto nine points.

Forest went ahead in the 15th minute when striker Emmanuel Dennis took advantage of slack marking from the Villa defence to head in a free kick from Morgan Gibbs-White.

Villa responded in the 22nd with a superb Ashley Young strike from outside the area and thought they had taken the lead later in the first half when Ollie Watkins put the ball in the net only to be flagged offside.

Forest manager Colin Cooper, who made 22 signings in the close season, is still struggling to settle on a starting lineup and made five changes from the side thrashed 4-0 at Leicester last week.

His team managed to control the game and keep their opponents in check and after a frantic start the two sides mostly cancelled each other out in a drab second period.