Billy Davies admitted he was about to substitute Dexter Blackstock before he struck against Sheff Wed.
Irvine bemoans penalty decision
Billy Davies admitted he was about to substitute match-winner Dexter Blackstock before he struck against Sheffield Wednesday.
The Nottingham Forest striker bagged a brace at the City Ground, with his first coming from a controversial penalty.
Luke Varney had levelled for the visitors and manager Davies was planning changes when Blackstock found the net for the second time 10 minutes from time.
Good test
Davies said: "Yes, we were going to make a substitution before he scored. Sometimes it works out for you and sometimes it doesn't - but it did today.
"As for the penalty, it was a soft one and if I was their manager I would have been very disappointed by it.
"I was just pleased that we showed the character to win what was a very difficult game against a team who had won four out of their last five matches and were clearly working very hard for a new manager.
"It was a good test for us, having lost our first game in 20 to our nearest and dearest last weekend. But it was important for us to dig in and show the mettle we needed to come off the pitch with three points."
Context
The defeat was rough justice on Wednesday and manager Alan Irvine argued: "I thought we deserved to get something out of the game.
"There was only one person in the ground who thought it was a penalty because the shot clearly struck Darren Purse on the back. It knocked us out of our stride for 10 or 15 minutes.
"But we talked about a few things at half-time and were in the ascendancy for the second half. I thought we might actually go on and win it because we were on the front when we scored the equaliser.
"But when you put into context how good a side Forest are, we can take a lot of heart from the performance. If we perform like that in our other games we will win more than we lose."
