Alex McLeish proud of Nottingham Forest's fighting spirit

ALEX McLeish praised Nottingham Forest for their character and belief after seeing them claw back from behind to mark his first game as manager with a point.

Billy Sharp struck in injury time to secure a 2-2 draw for the Reds, after a superb strike from Andy Reid had cancelled out the first of two goals from Glenn Murray for Crystal Palace, either side of half time.

And the new Forest boss was proud of his players' attitude, saying: "I thought there was a lot of fighting spirit there, among the guys.

"To their credit, they went right to the final whistle.  They could so easily have let their heads go down, after that 81st minute goal for Palace.

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"But they fought right to the death and that was fantastic. That shows great character. But I also saw great quality.

"There were things we can improve on, but Reidy was amazing. What a game he had.

"These are things that we can talk about in the privacy of the training ground. I didn't think there was a lot that was disappointing. I thought it was a pretty decent performance, all in all.

"I thought we were well worth the draw, if not even a victory. We were aware of the Zaha threat but I thought that, tactically, we handled him very well, along with Bolasie.

"They were a real threat for Palace and they are a top of the league side, don't forget. They are not up near the top for no reason. So it was a really good performance for us.

"I spoke to the lads before the game and at half time. It was easier for me to see from stands, it was a good vantage point. We spoke about substitutions and we made the changes, I felt, at the right time."

McLeish was also full of praise for his front two, with Blackstock providing the flick on for Sharp to score.

"Billy is a goal scorer. He knows where the goal is and he gets into good positions. When Harding fired the ball in towards Dexter, I was just thinking to myself 'keep it alive big man'," said McLeish.

"He did that and Billy was there or there abouts and it was nice to see the ball falling kindly for him. Billy deserved that.

"Dexter is not going to win every ball. We did not play a long ball game up to him, but there were some clever balls dropped in to him.

"The goal was brilliant timing. He needed to win that ball for us and it took every ounce of effort from him to do so, because he looked out on his legs a little bit."