Nottingham Forest battled Preston North End and some inhospitable conditions on Wednesday night, the two sides involved in the FA Cup 4th Round replay at Deepdale playing for the chance to meet Sheffield United in the last 16.
On his return to face his former club, Billy Davies made five changes with Dorus de Vries, Djamal Abdoun, Dan Harding, Matt Derbyshire and Greg Halford all starting. Prior to the match Davies had learned that influential midfield man Henri Lansbury will be out for up to three months with a fractured lower back.
Jamie Mackie scored the first goal of the tie on 18 minutes, breaking a deadlock that had lasted 90 minutes at the City Ground but the second game was as closely-fought as the first and Preston will feel disappointed that they didn’t convert more of the possession they had into clear-cut chances.
The Reds defended manfully, sealing the game through Darius Henderson in stoppage time and, while promotion to the Premier League remains their primary aim, they are now favourites to reach the quarter-finals of the famous old competition.