Nottingham Forest went out of the FA Cup after suffering the embarrassment of being thoroughly beaten by League Two Chester City.

It is hard to put a positive slant on the defeat with Forest creating little, leaving Chester to command the pitch for long periods.

Forest suffered three blows in the first half with Cullip going off injured, Holt picking up a red card and Chester taking the lead from the resulting penalty.

It took just ten minutes of the second half for Chester to slot two more goals into the Forest net and, with Forest hardly putting up a fight, the game was already over.

The pitch was very wet after a considerable amount of rain before kick-off and both teams were getting used to the slippery conditions in the early stages of the game.

During a good spell by Forest Morgan made a great run, getting away from 4 challenges and into the box but the ball was cleared before he could get a shot on target.

When Chester made a run back down the other end Gerrard got his hands onto the ball, protesting about a late challenge by Lowe.

Cullip's game came to an end 16 minutes in when he stretched on the half way line and instantly knew that his hamstring had gone again. He was replaced by Pittman, with Taylor moving to the back.

Gerrard had to be quick to prevent Chester from creating a chance when the ball went past all Forest's defenders but the Forest keeper was there to gather the ball up.

The conditions became worse as the half progressed with the pitch cutting up badly, doing nothing to improve the quality of the football, with the long ball becoming more of a necessity than a choice.

Forest could have created a chance when Southall and Pittman combined well to get the ball forward but the final ball went straight to the Chester keeper.

Chester took the lead from a penalty on 39 minutes. Richardson made a good run, beat Taylor and squared the ball in to Lowe whose first shot hit the post. The ball bounced straight back to him and as he lined up the tap-in Holt brought him down from behind.

Holt was dismissed and Chester were awarded a penalty. Lowe sent Gerrard the wrong way and put the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

With the dismissal Megson was forced to make yet another change to the formation with Curtis moving into Holt's holding position in midfield.

Neither team created anything for the remainder of what was a poor first half and the large band of travelling supporters could barely raise a clap when the half time whistle went.

Less than 5 minutes into the second half Chester had increased their lead. Tom Curtis got forward and sent the ball over the Forest defence who tried to play offside. Lowe ran into the edge of the penalty area and slotted the ball in low past Gerrard.

Soon after the goal Bastians, who had been waiting since the start to come on, replaced Bopp to strengthen the Forest attack.

But it was Chester who scored, getting their third less than 5 minutes after their second. Southall dived in an attempt to get the ball but Richardson got it to Davis who played it back to Richardson. He mis-kicked and the ball bubbled through two Forest players legs and ended up in the back of the net.

With only ten minutes of the second half gone hundreds of Forest fans had seen enough and left to make the long journey home.

Chester continued to dominate, getting forward in acres of space and finding little to stop them.

Megson made his third substitution with Gardner replacing substitute Pittman, leaving Johnson with an impossible job on his own up front.

Chester slowed the game right down and Forest seemed unable to do anything about it. The away supporters continued to drift away with the remainder keeping their spirits up with some ironic chanting.

Tom Curtis came close to a fourth for Chester when the ball was played to his feet. He kept control until he saw an opening and his effort was only just over the bar.

The final whistle could not come soon enough and Chester thoroughly deserved to go through to the next round with their fans chanting 'easy, easy' and it would be hard to argue with that.

Nottingham Forest: Gerrard, Thompson, Morgan, Cullip (C) (Pittman 17min) (Gardner 67min), Curtis, Holt, Southall, Perch, Bopp (Bastians 52min), Johnson, Taylor
Subs not used: Pedersen, Eaden
Bookings: Holt RED CARD 38min

Chester City: MacKenzie, McNiven (C), Artell, Regan, Dimech, Davies (Dove 82min), Curtis, Drummond, Richardson (El Kholti 70min), Lowe, Walker(Vaughan 75min)
Subs not used: Bollands, Brookfields
Scorer: Lowe pen 39min, 50min, Richardson 55min

Referee: L Mason
Attendance: 4,732

Chester City			Nottingham Forest
Goal Attempts	7	:	2	Goal Attempts
On Target	3	:	1	On Target
Crosses	3	:	1	Crosses
Corners	2	:	3	Corners
Offside	5	:	2	Offside
Fouls	8	:	8	Fouls
Free kicks	9	:	13	Free kicks
Yellow cards	-	:	-	Yellow cards
Red cards	-	:	1	Red cards
% Possession	60	:	40	Possession %