Forest's nine men equal to tame task

The pressure is mounting for Gordon Strachan. Relegated in May, his Coventry side will enter September with only four points from four First Division fixtures after last night's failure of firepower and imagination against a Forest team who finished the match with nine men.

Forest had their lone striker, Stern John, sent off before half-time, and the French defender Matthieu Louis-Jean followed him with a quarter of the contest remaining. But Coventry struggled to create an opening until Jay Bothroyd trundled an easy chance straight to Darren Ward in the dying seconds, and were booed off for the second home game running.

Before an ankle was kicked in earnest, Coventry suffered a setback when their £900,000 newcomer from Royal Casa-blanca, Youssef Safri, injured a groin in the pre-match warm-up and had to give way to Marc Edworthy on the bench.

The Sky Blues' woes appeared to deepen when John rose unattended to head in David Prutton's fourth-minute cross. An offside flag came to their rescue and they grew in confidence, as exemplified by the long-range shooting of Keith O'Neill, but occasionally too dependent on David Thompson's set-piece prowess.

From one swerving corner, Bothroyd headed inches too high midway through the first half. Bothroyd, a 19-year-old who cost £1m from Arsenal, is an unpredictable hybrid of raw power, deftness and naïvety; not, perhaps, the ideal partner for Lee Hughes.

Hughes did not threaten Forest until the 31st minute, when Darren Ward had to dart off his line to usher the ball away. Bothroyd then found him with a long, cross-field pass worthy of Beckham or Gerrard, Hughes trod on the ball, but the embarrassment did not prevent his embarking on a mazy run moments later, which Forest halted with some difficulty.

The visitors' task was scarcely made easier by John's dismissal after 42 minutes. Cautioned two minutes earlier for fouling Roland Nilsson, the Forest forward rashly encroached at a Coventry corner. Mr Dowd, one of the new full-time referees, had little option other than to enforce the law.

The banishment of his only out-and-out attacker presented Forest's manager, Paul Hart, with a tactical dilemma. Surprisingly, his initial response was not to bring on David Johnson or Marlon Harewood, but to push Andy Gray up front. Despite sharing a name with a legendary striker, the former Leeds player is not noted for pace or a scoring touch.

Gray is, however, adept at holding the ball up, theoretically allowing colleagues time to get forward in support. In the event, he filled in only until he was replaced by Harewood on the hour, by which time Forest were frequently pulling every player back behind the ball, as if defying their opponents to break them down.

This is an unfamiliar challenge to Coventry, who were more accustomed to grinding out enough results in the top flight than to carrying the game to teams. The greatest danger to Ward almost invariably came from long distance, with neither wide midfielder providing the requisite service for Hughes.

Forest, though, seemed intent on making it easier for them. Louis-Jean's second caution in the space of 14 minutes, both for fouls on O'Neill, left them facing the final 23 minutes with only nine men.

Coventry City (4-4-2): Hedman; Nilsson, Konjic, P Williams (Zuniga, 75), Hall; Thompson (Edworthy, 85), Chippo, Carsley, O'Neill; Hughes, Bothroyd. Substitutes not used: Shaw, Quinn, Goram (gk).

Nottingham Forest (4-4-1-1): Ward; Louis-Jean, Hjelde, Doig, Brennan; Prutton, G Williams, Jenas, Gray (Harewood, 60; (Edwards, 87); Bart-Williams; John. Substitutes not used: Johnson, Bopp, Roche (gk).

Referee: P Dowd (Stoke-on-Trent).