Hull City continue impressive record in Nottingham as Forest miss chance to go second in Championship

• Nottingham Forest 1 Hull City 2

Head coach Sabri Lamouchi rued “a bad moment” for his Nottingham Forest side, who missed a chance to reclaim second place in the Championship as Hull City maintained an impressive record at the City Ground.

The Tigers, who began the night in 19th place after back-to-back defeats, had to play the last 23 minutes with 10 men after goalscorer John Magennis was sent off for a crude challenge on Forest captain Ben Watson.

But they were able to successfully defend a 2-1 lead built on their earlier outstanding play on the counter-attack, completing a sixth win in their last seven visits to this stadium, and dealing Forest a second consecutive defeat after their loss at Wigan on Sunday.

“It’s a bad moment for us,” Lamouchi said “It is the first time we have lost two successive games since I have been here.

“We are disappointed because it was a massive opportunity to make an impression on the league.

“I don’t know why it took us so long to play in the aggressive way I wanted but when we did that we scored and I cannot complain about the last half an hour when we tried so hard to equalise.

“But before that we gave them the opportunity to counter attack which is what they were looking for with good wingers like (Jarrod) Bowen and (Kamil) Grosicki.”

A scorching run by Callum Elder carved out the chance for their first goal after 38 minutes, Magennis applying the final touch to Jon Toral’s shot.

Grosicki’s superb pass from deep in his own half sparked the breakaway that ended in Hull’s second three minutes into the second half, creating a two versus one in which the injury-plagued Toral - making his first start in a Championship match since May 2018 - squared the ball for Bowen to score.

Goalkeeper Brice Samba denied Hull on three other occasions before the dismissal of Magennis changed the balance of the match.

Forest had two penalty claims turned down either side of Matty Cash pulling a goal back. According to Lamouchi “it was obvious to everyone except the referee” that former Forest defender Eric Lichaj had brought down Sammy Ameobi with 20 minutes left, but Oliver Langford plainly disagreed.

“We were up against it, but I thought we defended superbly as a team,” Hull manager Grant McCann said. “It was an outstanding performance. Whether we’d had 10 or 11 men, I think we’d have held on comfortably.

“It’s never easy coming to one of the best teams in the league, but we did it and won. We lost two games in a row but we didn’t panic, we knew if we could get our team selection right here then we could cause problems.”

Match details

Nottingham Forest (4-2-3-1): Samba; Cash, Chema, Worrall, Robinson; Silva, Watson; Lolley, Carvalho (Yates 61), Ameobi (Adomah 73); Grabban.
Substitutes not used: Muric (g), Ribeiro, Figueiredo, Rafa Mir, Johnson.
Booked: Silva, Robinson, Samba.

Hull City (4-2-3-1): Long; Lichai, Burke, De Wijs (Tafazolli 65), Elder; Da Silva Lopes, Irvine; Bowen, Toral (Balogh 73), Grosicki (Honeyman 73); Magennis.
Substitutes not used: Ingram (g), Stewart, Eaves, Bowler.
Booked: Bowen, Long.
Sent off: Magennis

Referee: Oliver Langford (West Midlands)

Attendance: 27,624.