Forest and Bournemouth share spoils at the City Ground

Play-off hopefuls Bournemouth were held to a goalless draw away at Nottingham Forest in the EFL Championship.

Forest had the first chance of the match in the ninth minute. An interesting free-kick routine saw James Garner and Luke Freemen lay off Filip Krovinovic, whose strike went straight in the hands of Cherries ‘keeper Asmir Begovic.

On the quarter of the hour mark the East Midlands side went close again. Anthony Knockaert tested Begovic with a shot on his left-foot on the edge of the area. The former Chelsea keeper half spilled the shot, but recovered to stop a potential follow up on the rebound by Reds striker Glenn Murray.

Bournemouth had some good chances to open the scoring in the first-half. Firstly, Junior Stanislas played a one-two with Jack Wilshere, before the former Arsenal midfielder drove into the penalty area and curled one from a tight angle, which went just wide of the post.

Then in the 18th minute Wilshere played a well executed pass to Arnaut Danjuma, the Dutchman crossed it from the by-line and found Shane Long, who headed it over the crossbar.

The south-coast side had conceded 11 goals from set pieces this season, the joint most in the Championship before Saturday’s 3pm kick-offs, and they almost added to that unwanted record twice. The first was when Knockaert’s free-kick was met by Nottingham Forest captain Joe Worrall, who glanced his header wide of the goal.

Then with ten minutes to go a corner that was whipped in Krovinovic’s reached Glenn Murray who had his header cleared off the line by Jefferson Lerma.

Bournemouth really lacked any attacking threat for the majority of the second-half, Sam Surridge, David Brooks and Phillip Billing were all brought on by Jonathan Woodgate in hope that they could snatch a late winner at the City Ground.

But despite the changes they were unable to find the breakthrough. It was a disappointing afternoon for Bournemouth, after their impressive victory at Burnley in the FA Cup in midweek, they struggled to muster attempts on Brice Samba’s goal.

The Cherries have won just two of their last ten matches in the Championship, and have only got one victory on the road from their last seven.

What will also be of concern is the potential loss of captain Steve Cook, who was taken off with injury in the opening five minutes of the match.

The Dorset-based club remain sixth in the division, six points ahead of Cardiff City who moved up to seventh after their 3-1 win over Coventry.

Meanwhile Chris Hughton’s have lost just once in their last 11 games. They are now 16th in the league, five points clear of Sheffield Wednesday who sit 22nd in the Championship. But with the Owls playing a game less than Forest, they still continue to look over their shoulder.

Nottingham Forest travel to Swansea City in midweek where they will be looking to make amends from their 5-1 loss at the Liberty Stadium in the FA Cup last month. Bournemouth are also back in action in the week, taking on relegation threatened Rotherham United at the Vitality Stadium.