Birmingham City have helped to contribute to an indifferent spell for Nottingham Forest, as a late penalty from Paul Caddis was enough to condemn Stuart Pearce's 10 men to a slender 2-1 defeat at St Andrew's in the Championship this afternoon.
The hosts made the most of a dominant start in the opening minutes and they soon found the lead through Cotterill, who produced a scorcher from outside of the box that flew into the top-left corner of Karl Darlow's goal.
Clayton Donaldson should have increased City's lead, but Darlow produced a good save to deny the Blues striker, who could only fire straight at the keeper from close range.
Forest looked to respond as Ben Osborn made good progress before crossing for Britt Assombalonga, with the striker lashing his attempt horribly over the crossbar, leaving Darren Randolph looking relieved.
The hosts should really have doubled their lead before the half-time whistle, but Demarai Gray saw his shot across goal somehow stopped down low by an adroit Darlow, who managed to keep his side in the game going into the interval.
Jonathan Grounds was the next City player to make a meal of a good chance, as he leapt highest to send a header wide of the post unmarked shortly after the start of the second period.
Donaldson thought he had brought an end to any lingering nerves for the home side with 15 minutes left to play, yet Darlow saw to his shot that looked headed for the top corner.
The game looked to be leaning towards a simple 1-0 win in favour of City, but Assombalonga had other ideas as he drew Pearce's men level in the 84th minute having headed home from Jamie Paterson's pass.
The Forest striker had his head in his hands shortly after, though, when he conceded a penalty and red card which allowed Caddis to push his side back in front from the spot and round off a crazy five minutes that ultimately handed Birmingham an important home win.
Christopher Dodd
