The largest City Ground crowd of the season saw Nottingham Forest win their fourth game in a row to beat Newcastle United and move to just five points from the top of the table.
The game was exciting from start to finish and was an excellent advertisement for the Championship.
Forest played a superb first half, creating chance after chance and completely out-playing Newcastle and they were rewarded with a goal in the 45th minute.
Newcastle were a different force in the second half, creating numerous chances. But Forest defended bravely and in the end kept their composure to take all three points.
Forest had the first chance of the game in the third minute when Wes Morgan lofted the ball into the penalty area. Dexter Blackstock got between two defenders to get his head on it and Steve Harper did well to dive to his right and touch the ball clear with his outstretched arm.
And Forest should have been given a free kick seconds later for a hand ball 25 yards out, but the referee waved play on.
And there was more good build-up from Forest to create another chance and when Newcastle only cleared the ball as far as Radoslaw Majewski, he curled the ball in from 20 yards, forcing another save from the Newcastle keeper.
Forest came close again following superb delivery by Majewski to Blackstock, whose poserful header struck the post and came flying back out.
As Forest continued to create all the chances, superb footwork by Blackstock got him into the penalty area where he crossed to Nathan Tyson. He also produced good work to get the ball back to Majewski who had his effort put out for a corner.
It was 26 minutes before Newcastle had their first real chance, from a free kick 30 yards out. Ryan Taylor's effort was allowed to travel past everyone until it hit the far post and came out for Morgan to clear for a corner.
Forest were quickly on the break and when Tyson sent a cross pitch ball to Paul Anderson on the far site it looked an impossible ball to keep in. But Anderson managed to keep the ball in and sent a long-range shot towards goal where Harper dived to his left to make the save.
There was another chance for Forest when Anderson did well to get the ball into the box from the left. It came back out to him and then bounced up nicely for Tyson who swivelled to get a shot in, sending the ball across the face of goal and just wide of the post.
As Forest continued to pile on the pressure, Chris Gunter did well to beat his man and send a superb cross in for Blackstock who was once again denied a goal.
Forest scored in the 45th minute after winning the ball back. They slowed the play down beautifully to pass the ball through midfield until Majewski fed it through to Backstock who timed his run perfectly. Harper came out to close him down but he kept his composure to finish perfectly and put Forest into the lead.
Newcastle put pressure on Forest from the start of the second half, producing some good passing football. But on more than one occasion Marlon Harewood chose to try and score against his former club rather than pass to someone in a better position than him.
Forest lacked the composure that they had in the first half as Newcastle pressurised them into losing possession again and again.
On the hour mark Majewski was replaced by David McGoldrick as Forest sought to regain control of the midfield.
Newcastle came close when Andrew Carroll's effort was blocked by Morgan and went out to Kevin Nolan on the left, but his effort from a tight angle went wide.
The away supporters thought they had an equalizer when the ball was flicked on from Alan Smith towards goal where it found the head of Nolan. But he was fractionally offside when he put the ball in the back of the net and the goal didn't count.
AndNewcastle continued to push forward but Forest defended bravely and in numbers to contain the threat.
Anderson, who had gone down injured but carried on playing for a few minutes, received a standing ovation when he was replaced by Lewis McGugan with ten minutes remaining.
Newcastle threatened again from the corner but substitute Nile Ranger missed his chance and shot over.
There were cries of "There's only one Paul Mckenna" around the City Ground when the Forest captain became the third substitution after suffering a bit of cramp. He was replaced by Joe Garner, who picked up a yellow card just three minutes after coming on.
Their was tension round the City Ground as four minutes of stoppage time was announced.
Forest came close to putting the game out of Newcastle's reach when Tyson crossed into the box to McGoldrick but he had his shot blocked.
And when Newcastle made a quick break substitute Jonas Gutierrez forced a late save from Camp.
There were nervous whistles from around the ground as Forest fans willed the referee to blow his whistle and the City Ground erupted when it finally went.
Nottingham Forest: Lee Camp, Chris Gunter, Wes Morgan, Kelvin Wilson, Paul Anderson(Lewis McGugan 79min), Chris Cohen, Paul McKenna(C)(Joe Garner 86min)
Guy Moussi, Radoslaw Majewski,(David McGoldrick 61min) Nathan Tyson, Dexter Blackstock
Subs not used: Paul Smith, Luke Chambers, Garath McCleary, Dele Adebola,
Bookings: Garner 89min
Scorer: Blackstock 45min
Newcastle United: Steve Harper, Ryan Taylor, Danny Simpson, Zurab Khizanishvili, Jose Enrique, Danny Guthrie, Alan Smith (c), Kevin Nolan, Peter Lovenkrands(Jonas Gutierrez 61min), Andy Carroll, Marlon Harewood(Nile Ranger, 83min)
Subs not used: Tim Krul, Tamas Kadar, Nicky Butt, Geremi, Ryan Donaldson,
Bookings: Smith 3min, Khizanishvili 67min, R Taylor 71min
Referee: P Taylor
Attendance: 29,155 Away attn: 4,410
