Bristol City 0-0 Nottingham Forest: Hosts earn replay at City Ground after goalless draw

 

After a scoreless FA Cup draw, Bristol City and Nottingham Forest will rematch their fourth-round match at the City Ground.

Forest will be happy to escape what happened to West Ham at Ashton Gate in the third round, when the Sky Bet Championship team pulled off an incredible upset against Premier League opponents.

But in their fight to stay in the top flight, Nuno Espirito Santo's team will not appreciate the extra game.

How Forest was irritated by Bristol City...

In an evenly contested match, Forest got the better of the obvious openings but ultimately had to settle for a replay and Nuno's first clean sheet in seven games.

Jason Knight began in place of Joe Williams in the Robins' midfield as City, who is now ranked 13th in the Championship and 17 spots lower than Forest in the football pyramid, fielded 10 players from the starting lineup in the West Ham victory.

Positive news arrived from the bench as key player Morgan Gibbs-White made a successful comeback after missing two games due to injury. The England Under-21 international also made a great halftime substitution.

Spurred on by yet another sell-out crowd, City got off to a fast start, with Andrew Omobamidele snuffing out Tommy Conway twice.

Conway was the hero against the Hammers, scoring goals in each of the two matches; nonetheless, the youthful striker side-footed Anis Mehmeti's cross wide from ten yards out.

With the exception of Nuno Tavares' curling free kick into the side net, Forest had not posed much of an offensive threat during the first quarter.

However, after 28 minutes, the visitors forced the lone save of the first half when Ryan Yates fired directly at Max O'Leary, the home goalkeeper.

City kept probing, but just before halftime, a quick raid nearly caught them.

Leading the breakaway, Chris Wood supplied Callum Hudson-Odoi, who then recovered the ball for the charging Danilo to strike the hoarding in front of the goal.

In first-half stoppage time, Knight headed over Taylor Gardner-Hickman's corner, but Forest's attack-building became more fluid once Gibbs-White arrived.

Wood gave a meek nod in response to Gibbs-White's lofted feed after he nearly had an immediate impact with a blocked header.

In response, Forest goalkeeper Matt Turner shoveled the ball behind under pressure from Knight as City's Cameron Pring crossed to the far post.

After Gibbs-White had drove at the heart of the home defense, Hudson-Odoi should have done better than strike the side-netting, then Robins replacement Sam Bell saw Murillo's midriff thwart a strong shot.

The match was set to be replayed when Pring curtailed a quick counterattack by rippling the sidenetting and Danilo misplayed a free-kick.