Post match reaction to City 1 - 1 Forest

[Michael Morris]

Cardiff boss Russell Slade accused Nottingham Forest of "parking the bus" after the Bluebirds fell further off the Sky Bet Championship play-off pace with a 1-1 draw.

The visitors had led through 18-year-old Oliver Burke's ninth-minute opener - his first senior goal - but were pegged back by a deflected Aron Gunnarsson effort four minutes later.

Cardiff had over 60 per cent of possession and 17 shots to Forest's six, but they could not make it pay as they dropped six points behind the top six, much to Slade's frustration.

"We are disappointed, we had some very good chances in that first half," said Slade. "They parked the bus in the second half, sat very, very deep and made it difficult for us.

"They lived on the counter-attack and we could not unlock the door which is very frustrating, even though we did a lot of very good things in the game.

"They tried to kill the game and see it out from an early stage, but we should have been adding to our tally with the three good first-half chances we had.

"We will just keep working at it, and we played well against a good Forest side who, had they been any deeper, they would have needed snorkels."

The draw, in which Tony Watt, Anthony Pilkington and Gunnarsson missed excellent chances, means it is just three wins in 12 for Cardiff, and Slade admits they need to find a ruthless edge.

"That run is probably not quite good enough for where we are wanting to be," he said. "The return for us over this festive period has been poor and we need to start taking our chances and be clinical when we have teams under pressure and are creating opportunities."

Despite Cardiff's dominance, Forest had late chances to win it, with Jamie Ward and substitute Nelson Oliveira failing to convert gilt-edged chances.

But manager Dougie Freedman was happy enough with a point that extended Forest's unbeaten run to seven games.

"I think we should have won it at the end, we had the two best chances of the game during that last 15 minutes," he said.

"We tried to slow everything down and quiet their fans down and we felt that was the best way to do it.

"We made a lot of changes and we didn't complain about the number of fixtures. The younger guys we had come in gave us some freshness and allowed us to keep some guys on the bench and bring them on to try and win the game.

"So I am very proud of the players, they just got on with it and knuckled down.

"With our transfer embargo I am going to need to be able to call on these players to get us through to the end of the season.

"My January will be easy and it is about these lads helping to freshen us up and keep us going."

[TT BLUEBIRD]

Dougie doesn't take much to quite our fans down the away support is always more vocal these days.