The Reds were held to a 1-1 draw by American A-League side Richmond Kickers last night, which was a good result as Forest played pretty well throughout, despite this being only their second game of a tour in which all of their opponents are mid-way through their seasons and at optimum fitness. There was a crowd of 6,000 on hand to spectate.

Forest started the game of well, with fans' favourite David "Johno" Johnson attempting a cheeky chip from 20 yards out when he saw the Kickers keeper of his line. Unfortunately Hesmer recovers and makes a good diving save.

Goal! It was only the 16th minute by the time out American counterparts scored, despite us being on top for much of the game so far. Richmond won a corner against the run of play and Tim Brown gets his head on the end, makes a decent connection, and sharply places it into the lower corner of Gerrard's net.

The Kickers were now full of confidence and in the 35th minute they put together a good move to trouble the Forest goal- Tim Brown stole the ball in the middle of the park, played a wide pass to Kevin Jeffery, who ran onto it and proceeded to cut inside and make a shot which Gerrard dived and saved. They put together another move in the 40th minute too, from which Gerrard made an easy save.

By the 45th minute The Reds realised that they would have to at least threaten the goal if they were going to score- Andy Reid, who has recently been a target of Tottenham Hotspur, made a cross in to Gareth Taylor- his header hit the crossbar, and so Johno attempted a spectacular bicycle kick which went just wide.

The Reds began the second half dismally, with Kickers forcing a corner out of us as early as the 54th minute. Joe Vidmar got a weak shot out of this, but Forest's substitute goalie, Darren Ward, got a comfortable save out of this.

It wasn't until the 59th minute that Forest got their first real chance of the second half: Eugen Bopp got into a good position, only to have his shot blocked with a sliding tackle from Richmond's Chris Brown.

New signing Kevin James showed the fans that had traveled across the Atlantic what he can do, when he made a good run down the sideline and made a perfect cross for Eugen Bopp, who fired just wide.

Goal! It looked as though Forest were destined to lose, it was the 81st minute and nothing seemed to be going right for the Reds. They had been creating the chances and yet they had nothing to show for it... that was until an unlikely hero stepped up: Mathieu Louis-Jean. He took control of the ball, and made an excellent shot at goal, whilst Hesmer was out of position, which smashed into the far corner of the goal.

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Forest: Gerrard (Ward 45mins) Louis-Jean, Doig, Morgan, Rogers,( Robertson 76mins) Impey,(James 45mins) Thompson, Reid,(Commons76mins) Jess,(Bopp 45mins) Johnson, Taylor(Westcarr 82mins)
Scorer: Louis-Jean 81mins

Kickers: Hesmer, Brown M, O'Toole, Bobo, Vidmar, Lindemayer(Worthen 69mins), Pauls(Cephas 76mins), Lekis(Burke 84mins)Brown T, Ukrop(Delcate 75mins)Jeffrey(Hayes 84mins)
Scorer:Brown T 16mins
Booking: Brown T 45mins

Referee: Andrew Chapin
Attn: 6,176