Nottingham Forest Reserves 1 Blackburn Rovers Reserves 0

WHAT was virtually a Forest first team struggled to contain a brave second-half fightback by the Rovers youngsters in last night's Pontin's League game at the City Ground.

Faced by the likes of Pierre Van Hooijdonk, Chris Bart-Williams, Des Lyttle, Ian Woan and Neil Shipperley, Rovers looked a little over-awed in the first half when only a couple of brilliant saves by Alan Fettis kept them in the game.

Forest had to settle for a single goal from Jean-Claude Darcheville and were not prepared for the way Rovers responded after the break.

Ryan Baldacchino took the eye as they grasped the initiative and he was unlucky not to score as chances came along.

Steve Hawe and Marc Richards also had opportunities to snatch a point, while Paul Forsyth was a threat on the left and saw one effort hit the crossbar.

Coach Terry Darracott said: "It's such a young side but I still expect a lot from them and they did really well in the second half. We could easily have had something from the game."

ROVERS: Fettis, Richardson, Murphy (sub D Dunning 55 mins), Scates, Whittle, Brown, Baldacchino (sub Hawe 80 mins), Fitzpatrick, M Richards (sub Foster 60 mins), Topley, Forsyth. Subs not used: Ryan, Bingham.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.