Nottingham Forest earned three valuable points away from home with a tremendous team performance at Colin Calderwood's former club.

Forest started well and were rewarded with an early goal. But they went down to ten men after James Perch was sent off and Northampton got an equalizer half way through the first half.

Forest put in a battling performance in the second half and took the lead courtesy of a penalty by Nathan Tyson. They showed their determination in holding onto the lead to take all three points.

It was a confident start by Forest although the severe wind impeded both sides from the outset.

Forest took the lead after eight minutes after a super ball was played down left by Matt Thornhill and Julian Bennett. He put the ball through to Chris Cohen who made a break and fired over a low cross to Brett Ormerod as he arrived at the back post and side-foot home from six yards.

And they could have made it two less than five minutes later after a super cross by Sammy Clingan found Nathan Tyson who headed just wide.

And a good ball from Matt Thornhill set Tyson off on a run and Mark Little defended well to block his shot.

As Forest continued to put the pressure on a low ball in by Tyson went straight across the six-yard box but Ormerod was not able to get there in time.

But then James Perch was rather harshly shown a red card for a high tackle on Poul Hubertz and both Julian Bennett and Clingan were shown yellow cards for arguing with the referee about the decision.

And then just three minutes late, to the astonishment of the Forest players and supporters, Ryan Gilligan only picked up a yellow card for a malicious tackle on Bennett.

Northampton equalized in the 32nd minute following a throw-in and when the ball bounced in the penalty area Hubertz got on the end of it and with an overhead kick put the ball past Smith and into the corner.

Northampton finished the half strongly and Adebayo Akinfenwa twice threatened the Forest goal but good defending by Julian Bennett snubbed out the danger. And twice Hubertz missed the target, first shooting over the bar and then wide of the post.

Forest almost took the lead back in the opening minutes of the second half when Thornhill got away from his man and crossed to Tyson on the near post. He didn't have space to shoot so set up Clingan who rattled the crossbar from 22 yards.

Thornhill became the fourth Forest player to pick up a yellow card, for arguing with the referee who had clearly made a poor decision.

A good tackle by Ormerod, back helping out the Forest defence, prevented Northampton from taking a shot on goal when he dispossessed Gilligan.

As Forest became more dominant a decent header from Bennett only just missed the target from Clingan's corner.

The referee finally made a decision in Forest's favour, awarding a penalty when Tyson went down under a challenge from the Northampton keeper as he came out to get the ball. Tyson sent the keeper the wrong way, sending the ball along the ground and into the back of the net to put Forest back in the lead.

Ormerod received a standing ovation from the travelling supporters when he went off with 12 minutes to go, replaced by Kris Commons.

Soon after this Tyson seemed to be in trouble and eventually went down to receive treatment, although he didn't appear injured, but was quickly replaced by Junior Agogo.

It was a real battle as the game drew to a close and to add to the pressure for Forest Northampton were awarded a free kick just outside the penalty area in the 90th minute but Daniel Jones curled the ball into the body of Smith who clutched it to him.

As Forest made a break Commons tried a long range shot which Bunn had to be quick to get on the end of.

With two minutes of stoppage time remaining Northampton won a corner and Forest struggled to clear the ball but a superb effort from Morgan cleared the danger.

With the weather worsening the home crowd left in droves but the 1,304 travelling supporters stayed to celebrate as Forest take a precious three points away from home.

Nottingham Forest: Paul Smith, Kelvin Wilson(C), Luke Chambers, Wes Morgan, Julian Bennett, James Perch, Sammy Clingan, Chris Cohen, Matt Thornhill(Lewis McGugan, 86min), Brett Ormerod(Kris Commons, 79min), Nathan Tyson(Junior Agogo, 80min)
Subs not used: Emile Sinclair, Garath McCleary,
Bookings: Perch RED CARD 20min, Bennett 21min Clingan 21min, Cohen 36min, Thornhill 50min
Scorer: Ormerod 8min, Tyson pen 62min

Northampton Town: Mark Bunn, Jason Crowe, Mark Little, Gabor Gyepes, Daniel Jones, Ryan Gilligan(Jonathan Hayes 79min), Joe Burnell(Giles Coke 70min), Danny Jackman, Poul Hubertz, Adebayo Akinfenwa, Andy Holt(Colin Larkin, 70min)
Subs not used: Chris Dunn, Liam Dolman,
Bookings: Gilligan 25min,Bunn 62min
Scorer: Hubertz 32min

Referee: R Styles
Attendance: 7,244 Away attn: 1,304