Blackburn Rovers have received a good dose of luck to get past Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup.

Striker Benni McCarthy's arguably lucky free-kick in the 37th minute was the only goal of the game but it could have been a different story if Nottingham's Dexter Blackstock had converted his 73rd minute penalty.

Blackstock's spot-kick was superbly pushed away by Rovers keeper Jason Brown and the Rovers were able to escape with a win, delighting manager Sam Allardyce.

"Overall I'm delighted. It was a tough match like we expected and we came through with no injury problems and gave a lot of players some really good football to catch up with match fitness," he said.

"With a squad of our size it's important to give players some high quality time on the pitch. We made 10 changes and it disrupted the team initially as they are a group of strangers playing together, really.

"We had two exciting lads making their way in the team in Junior Hoilett and a young lad who made his debut at the back and looked like he'd played there for a number of years in Phil Jones."