Blackburn 1-4 Nottm Forest: Lingard and Johnson shine as Cooper's men slip past Championship side

Jesse Lingard and Brennan Johnson both impressed as Nottingham Forest beat Blackburn Rovers 4-1 to reach the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

Welsh international Johnson netted a brace in his first game after the World Cup, while Jesse Lingard and Taiwo Awoniyi also found the net.

Nottm Forest could have scored a few more after Johnson's opener, but Rovers keeper Aynsley Pears made several fine saves.

Wharton made up for conceding the penalty early with a header to put Blackburn level at the break.

Lingard put the opposing side in front with a deflected free kick and the visitors wrapped it up with two goals in the final 10 minutes to send Forest into the last eight.

The Reds looked the brighter of the two teams when they returned to competition for the first time since November 12 and Johnson had the first chance of the game five minutes later when he was released with acres of space on the right, but pierced his effort directly at Pears.

The Blackburn keeper was forced into a second save two minutes later when Awoniyi launched a close-range effort directly at him as Johnson proved to be the connecting thread in the opening minutes.

The visitors were kicked 13 minutes into the game as Johnson proved too quick for Wharton's late challenge. He got up and sent Pears the wrong way to put Forest 1-0 up.

The visitors advanced again, but they found Pears in fine form as he prevented further efforts from Orel Mangala and Neco Williams.

Rovers made Forest pay for their missed chances and had an unlikely equalizer a minute before the break as Adam Wharton's free-kick was sent home by his brother Scott to even things up.

Lingard restored the visitors' advantage eight minutes after the break when he was knocked down by Scott Wharton and his low free kick found the net thanks to a few deflections which hurt Pears.

The Reds were keen to put the game to bed, but an inspired Pears was ready to stop further efforts from Lingard, Awoniyi and Rob Worrall before he swooped in on his goal to prevent Johnson from crossing the line.< /p>

Forest finally broke the tie with just over 10 minutes to play when Lingard snuck through Awoniyi to finish coldly and Johnson's hard-fought effort with the game's final kick in made four to knock the championship team out of the competition.

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