Blackburn 0-0 Nottingham Forest: Stalemate at Ewood Park

By PA Sport

Tuesday 15 December 2015 10:55, UK

Blackburn Rovers and Nottingham Forest played out a goalless draw at Ewood Park in game four of Sky Sports' 10 in 10.

The presence of former Blackburn forward Alan Shearer could not inspire the home side to victory as they failed to capitalise on their first-half dominance.

Shearer was back in east Lancashire to officially unveil 'Alan Shearer Way' near the ground on Monday as the club remembered the striker whose 34 league goals delivered the Premier League title to their trophy cabinet 20 years ago.

In the following campaign he scored a hat-trick against Forest as Blackburn won 7-0 in the first game to be played at the rebuilt Ewood Park, yet it was a dull stalemate that marked this anniversary and Shearer's return to his old stomping ground.

Bengali-Fode Koita headed a second-half opportunity that Shearer would surely have stuck away straight at goalkeeper Dorus De Vries, while Matt Mills' stoppage-time try at the other end was pushed on to the woodwork by Jason Steele.

Shearer had addressed the home crowd on the pitch before kick-off and told them that he hoped it would not be long before they were back in the top flight, and a win over Forest, without an away win since September, would have taken them to within one point of the play-off places.

That was due to the fine start Paul Lambert had made in the dugout having taken 10 points from his first four games in charge since arriving last month as Gary Bowyer's successor.

He saw his team dominate territorially in the first period, yet a flurry of early headers were the best they had to show for their efforts as Shane Duffy nodded straight at De Vries and Jordan Rhodes glanced wide at the near post from Craig Conway's right-wing cross.

A foray down the other side almost brought the opener as Markus Olsson ploughed on and the ball found its way to Ben Marshall, whose half-volley looped off Mills' leg and hit the underside of the crossbar behind De Vries.

The hosts failed to build on their control of the game and in the second period both Henri Lansbury and Jamie Ward fired in shots that Blackburn keeper Steele had to save down low.

However, it was Koita who really should have made the breakthrough with 18 minutes remaining.

Substitute Corry Evans twisted and turned on the right-hand side and delivered a fine ball to the six-yard box where an unmarked Koita glanced straight into De Vries' gloves.

That miss almost proved even more costly in the eight minutes of stoppage time when Mills' header was superbly tipped on to the post by Steele as Lambert's unbeaten start as boss was preserved.