Nottingham Forest 0 Sheffield United 3

Last updated : 25 January 2004 By Footymad Previewer

Another 90 minutes of frustration for Paul Hart and his Nottingham Forest team after a 3-0 defeat by Sheffield United at the City Ground.

Forest have now gone eight games without scoring after dominating most of this game. They just can't seem to score and when you are down you seem to get kicked harder and no one kicked Forest harder than referee Phil Dowd.

First he awarded a penalty to Sheffield United after 32 minutes when Mathieu Louis-Jean appeared to bring down Michael Tonge.

Former Forest favourite Jack Lester stepped up to score and make it 1-0 from the resulting penalty.

Forest came out in the second half with all guns blazing and on 49 minutes Gareth Williams fired in a shot from 30 yards which United keeper Paddy Kenny did well to parry.

Then on 54 minutes Danny Sonner hit the sidenetting after he followed up on Marlon King's shot.

The closest Forest came to scoring was after 61 minutes when Sonner shot from 30 yards, Kenny dived to push the ball for a corner and from the resulting corner Sonner headed wide from two yards out.

The visitors piled more agony on Forest when they went further into the lead on 79 minutes when some slack Forest defending left Chris Morgan unmarked.

He let rip with a thunderous overhead kick to increase his side's lead and give them some breathing space in this match.

Forest were denied a penalty on 81 minutes when Robbie Kozluk appeared to handle in the penalty area, but the referee turned down the crowd and the Forest players' appeals.

Wayne Allison made sure United's name went into the draw for the next round when he rose above Des Walker in the Forest defence to wrap the game up with a powerful header straight into the top corner with Darren Ward beaten convincingly.

So Neil Warnock's boys go into the next round leaving Forest to concentrate on Division One survival.