FA Cup: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Cardiff City - Lyle Taylor's early goal sees hosts through
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FA Cup: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Cardiff City highlights
Nottingham Forest ended their awful recent run against Cardiff to heap more pressure on Bluebirds boss Neil Harris.
Cardiff had won on their last six visits to the City Ground, but lost to a Forest side containing eight changes.
Forest made a perfect start after three minutes when Lyle Taylor volleyed home from Gaetong Bong's excellent cross.
Cardiff had a lot of possession without creating much as Forest, who have have lost seven of their last nine FA Cup matches, progressed to round four.
The Bluebirds never fully recovered from Forest's fast start as Harry Wilson and Robert Glatzel both failed to find the target for Cardiff, while debutant Dillon Phillips saved from Joe Lolley in a first half of few chances.
Cardiff did force Jordan Smith into action in the second half with efforts from range from Joe Ralls and Will Vaulks, while Wilson twice came close and Junior Hoilett volleyed over late on. At the other end, Alex Mighten was denied by Phillips as Forest held firm.
Nottingham Forest boss Chris Hughton said:
"I was pleased with (Carl) Jenkinson and (Gaetan) Bong. For them to come in and be part of that defensive unit that did so well, speaks volumes for the hard work they have put in during training.
"Both centre-backs were also excellent and they needed to be.
"We need to keep the ball better, because we are putting more pressure on ourselves than we would like and this was an uncomfortable game for us, so we needed that good partnership.
"The ideal scenario is that you defend very well and score goals but, when you are finding scoring goals difficult, it's something you have to work on while making sure you stay in games at the same time."
Cardiff boss Neil Harris said:
"I picked a team to win, because the FA Cup is a wonderful competition, even if it has lost some of its sparkle because the pandemic means there aren't any fans.
"But, while I'm not overly disappointed with the performance because we controlled the majority of the game, our main downfall was the poor goal we conceded.
"That was really disappointing so early in the game. We should have stopped the cross and then we gave their striker an opportunity to score from 12 yards.
"We had 15 shots and lots of balls that went across their six-yard box, but couldn't find that moment of quality."