Armed with a shiny new contract, Steve Cooper and Nottingham Forest needed a reaction. Although they failed to get the three points they craved, they halted their five-match losing run after taking a draw from a drab but heated contest at home against Aston Villa – a result that also lifts them off the bottom of the table.
For Steven Gerrard, it was another frustrating watch as his Villa team again laboured in the final third. Ashley Young’s sensational strike cancelled out Emmanuel Dennis’s opener on an autumnal evening by the River Trent but Villa’s miserly return of nine points from their opening nine games – a tally that means they are three points above the relegation zone – is hardly the start they envisaged.
