Nigel Worthington decided to make two changes to the starting line-up that beat Wimbledon 2-1 last Saturday, Chris Llewellyn and Darel Russell coming in for Paul McVeigh and Mark Rivers respectively. Forest's team was unchanged from their last game, Stern John playing alone up-front in a 4-5-1 formation.
Norwich had an early let-off when Gareth Williams' long-range shot hit the bar after only 3 minutes, Forest starting the brighter team. Forest then had 2 successive corners, but Green comfortably saved Jermaine Jenas' shot. Forest were on the attack again, another corner saw Gary Holt being on-hand to clear from the goal line after Green failed to punch the danger clear.
On 21 minutes Forest's domination in the centre of the park paid dividends when neat build-up work down Norwich's left by Nicky Summerbee and a neat lay off to David Prutton resulted in him slotting the ball home to make it 1-0.
Norwich made some improvement after going a goal down, on-loan striker David Nielsen making some good runs up-front (desperate to impress Nigel Worthington, as he can't really go back to Wimbledon now can he!)
However Norwich's troubles doubled in the 34th minute when Jim Brennan's impressive cross was met by Stern John, who had slipped in between Mackay and Fleming to head home.
Apart from David Nielsen appealing for a penalty, Norwich's chances were limited for the rest of the half, keeper Darren Ward not having to make a single save.
Half-Time: Nottingham Forest 2 Norwich City 0
Worthington's only change at half-time was to replace Chris Llewellyn with our regular left-winger Paul McVeigh. He nearly received an immediate reward when Iwan Roberts just failed to convert McVeigh's excellent cross. Darel Russell's long-range shot then went wide - City were playing alot better than in the first half, our trademark fluent passing becoming apparent.
Unfortunately this didn't last and Forest continued to look the more likely to score with Stern John, Nicky Summerbee, David Prutton and Jim Brennan playing particularly well.
Just after Steen Nedergaard shot wide on 65 minutes, Alex Notman replaced Darel Russell. On 80 minutes Marc Libbra came on for David Nielsen.
Apart from a Stern John miss from David Prutton's cross, the second half failed to deliver many chances for either side with Norwich being more and more frustrated as they struggled to breakdown an impressive Forest side.
Norwich's only effort of the game on target was a weak header by Marc Libbra which was easily collected by Darren Ward. Forest looked very comfortable in possession throughout the afternoon and, sad to say, thoroughly deserved their win.
Full Time: Nottingham Forest 2 Norwich City 0
