Bristol City 2 Nottingham Forest 0

Marvin Elliott shrugged off jet lag and a touch of altitude sickness to leave his boss on a high.

Elliott returned from helping Jamaica to a valuable World Cup qualification point in Mexico City only 24 hours before kick off.

But all eyes were on manager Sean O'Driscoll who was sacked by Forest owner Fawaz Al Hasawi after a Boxing Day win against Leeds and despite leaving the club comfortably in the hunt for promotion.

City chief O'Driscoll has notched up three wins in five games since moving to Ashton Gate and he pointedly stared up twice at Al Hasawi in the Director's box during the closing stages as the Kuwaiti businessman's players rapidly ran out of ideas.

O'Driscoll refused to gloat, but made no secret of the bad blood that now exists between the pair and said:

"Forest have their own problems. They have a fantastic club, a fantastic support-base and fantastic players. What they need now is fantastic owners.

"When you leave a team one point off the play-offs, you would be disappointed if you got ****ged off. If I'd left them a point off relegation, I would have expected criticism.

"I had a good relationship with the players and I had a good relationship with the supporters. Unfortunately, I did not have a good relationship with the owners."

Midfielder Elliott, 28, nodded in City's second in the 62nd minute twelve minutes after striker Steven Davies had opened the scoring with a deflected shot. Elliott then revealed:

"It was an important game for Jamaica and I'm really glad I went and feel humble that I played, but it was a long way. It was not just the travelling that took a toll, I also experienced being at altitude for the first time in my life.

"When I first trained out in Mexico City last Monday, I could not believe what was going on. I was struggling to catch my breath and it felt really weird. I'd never experienced anything like it before and it took me a couple of days to acclimatise and get used to it.

"I had to play 90 minutes and then catch the flight back, by which stage the time difference was kicking in for me. But I managed to sleep on the plane until about ninety minutes before we landed at Heathrow."

Al Hasawi replaced O'Driscoll with Alex McGleish, but the former Aston Villa manager quit last week and Billy Davies returned for a second stint at the club.

Forest winger Billy Sharp found the net three minutes into the second half, but was ruled offside after keeper Tom Heaton had done well to save a twelve yard strike from Dexter Blackstock.

Both teams should have scored before the break.

Keeper Karl Darlow did well to shut out City twice in the first half hour by getting down to beat away low shots from Davies and co-striker Jon Stead.

At the other end Blackstock should have claimed a first half hatful.

In the fourth minute Blackstock failed to connect from only two yards and then scuffed two shots inside the box before heading unchallenged off the top of Heaton's bar.

In the 39th minute Forest skipper Danny Collins did well to snuff out Stead's low cross with Davies poised to score from close in.

Forest have slipped to mid-table since O'Driscoll's departure, but Davies chose to miss the game and caretaker manager Rob Kelly said:

"The biggest job for Billy will be to sort out the team's inconsistency because that has been our main weakness.

"By looking at it coldly and dispassionately from the outside, I am sure he will be able to come up with some ideas. Those of us close to the players know there is no problem with their level of commitment."

Kelly revealed Davies had been in touch. He said:

"He told me to wish the players good luck and said he would see everyone on Monday. He'll watch the game and get a copy of it." 

My clipping from this morning's paper