SAM Allardyce's TV gamble paid off against Forest as the end fully justified the means.

He had gambled to a certain extent when he sanctioned the switch which brought the tie forward 24 hours, the £100,000 TV fee more than compensating for not having the services of his internationals.

As things turned out, the only player he was unable to call on was Jermaine Johnson, who was still on his way back from World Cup duty with Jamaica.

Fellow Reggae Boy Ricardo Gardner was suspended anyway, Akinori Nishizawa returned from playing for Japan in their friendly against Nigeria in Southampton the previous day to take one of the subs' shirts while Jussi Jaaskelainen, who was on the bench for Finland in Germany, was on hand to "deputise" when Steve Banks was ruled out just hours before kick off with a dislocated finger.

"The TV money is very, very good," the manager acknowledged, "and we're in the position of getting as much finance as we possibly can.

"I don't think we lost much on the attendance, although I do know there were quite a few people who didn't know we were playing on Monday because they were misled by what they'd seen on Teletext.

"But people like Nicky Southall, Bruno N'Gotty, Colin Hendry, Djibril Diawara, Ian Marshall, young Leam Richardson and even Rod Wallace, who still needs games, have come through a very competitive game to give them a bit of match edge and match fitness; we have won the game with a clean sheet and it takes us ever closer to that final.

"The result was very important and we've seen again the importance of set-plays. We lost our last game (at home to Sunderland) conceding from two set-plays, England have got through to the World Cup scoring from two set-plays and this one has won us this game."

It might not have been so satisfying had David Johnson and Jack Lester not missed sitters. But, on the credit side, Ward made outstanding saves from Marshall and Dean Holdsworth in addition to denying Southall and, despite Forest boss Paul Hart maintaining his side "dominated the game" after the first 20 minutes, the Wanderers' defence deserved a shut-out for their efforts.