In fairness, there wasn’t much in it with Blues edging the first half and Forest the second, the latter mainly because of a host of substitutions by the Blues which upset their pre-interval fluidity.

Jay Stansfield (who else?) scored the winner with a well-taken goal and that will do his confidence no harm. So who impressed?

Ryan Allsop was as calm as ever in goal although he wasn’t often tested. His distribution was immaculate, if a little heart-stopping at times. Alex Cochrane was very dependable at the back and the ‘new man’ Phil Neumann was decent, although to be frank he was overshadowed by a quite brilliant Christoph Klarer. The other star at the back was Osayi Samuel, who showed he can defend whilst being a real handful going forward.

Midfield was at its best with Tomoki Iwata hoovering everything up, leaving Paik Seung-ho and Tommy Doyle to create plenty. Further forward, Keshi Anderson was a handful for the Forest defence as was Stansfield, who as usual never stopped working. Demarai Gray gave a great outlet out wide and looks likely to continue where he left off last time he left the Blues.

The myriad of subs upset the rhythm in the second half and the most interesting cameo was from the Blues new Japanese addition Kyogo Furuhashi, who had scored goals for fun for Celtic. Although he didn’t get one this afternoon he looked razor-sharp even though, stature-wise,he would have even been dwarfed by Alfie May (and much further back by Jose Dominguez!)