![]() |
Unused Subs: Chrichton, McGovern, Rivers.
Norwich equalled a club record which has stood for 50 years as they reeled off their fourth straight league win without conceding any goals on Saturday.
Zema Abbey's 14th-minute strike was enough to give the Canaries all three points and make it 12 out of 12 since their opening day mauling at Millwall.
The all-important goal came out of the blue Steen Nedergaard picked out Iwan Roberts with a brilliant ball from deep inside the Norwich half.
The Welshman flicked the ball on into the path of Abbey and the former Cambridge United striker needed no second invitation to blast home a terrific right-foot shot from some 20 yards.
Forest rarely threatened in the first half, but after an early let-off at the start of the second - Christian Edwards certainly seemed to trip Roberts in the area - they proceeded to have their best spell of the match. But for all their neat football, Forest were unable to maintain the initiative and it was Norwich who created the better chances as the match wore on.
Forest keeper Darren Ward had to produce a good stop low down to his left to keep out Nedergaard's effort and Roberts headed a corner inches over the crossbar.
The visitors pressed bravely in the dying stages, given a boost when the referee somehow found five minutes of injury time, but Norwich's well-organised defence stood firm to clinch another three points.
Norwich manager Nigel Worthington was full of praise for his side's battling qualities;
"The workrate of the outfield players was absolutely phenomenal," said Worthington.
"You will not win playing well all the time. Sometimes you've got to battle to get results and that's what we did."
Man Of The Match: Gary "Energiser-Bunny" Holt. Not quite as outstanding as in previous games but still ran around like a headless chicken for the whole 90 minutes.
Verdict: Fantastic. We can expect another win in our next match against Rotherham, unless Norwich do a Norwich. Will we be top of the league come next Saturday?? Extremely likely!
