‘The day everyone has been waiting for’ – Forest manager Aitor Karanka on first home game of season

Watch: Forest manager Aitor Karanka on the first game of the season at the City Ground

Ahead of Nottingham Forest’s first home game of the season, manager Aitor Karanka has called the match ‘the day everyone has been waiting for’.

The Reds travelled to Ashton Gate for their opening game of the Championship on Saturday (August 4) and drew 1-1 with Bristol City.

Andreas Weimann fired the home side ahead inside the opening five minutes with striker Daryl Murphy then pulling the Reds level early in the second half to earn a point.

Forest play newly-relegated West Brom, who lost their opening match 2-1 at home to Bolton, in the first game of the season at the City Ground tomorrow (Tuesday August 7) with kick-off at 7.45pm.

And Forest have sold in excess of 20,000 season cards for this season.

Karanka said: “It’s the day everyone has been waiting for – since the last game of last season against Bristol City, everybody could see something was happening.

“The summer in terms of business has been amazing and the amount of season ticket holders for this season is amazing.

“And tomorrow, I would like to show the fans everything we have been working on on the pitch.”

Following the point against Bristol City, manager Aitor Karanka thought the point was a ‘fair result’.

Karanka said: “In the first five or 10 minutes of the game, I was really disappointed because of how well we had worked in pre-season leading up to this.

“Then to concede in the first five minutes from a corner, it changes everything – I was furious as I couldn’t understand it.

“But then after that, we were better and we were the team we were in pre-season.

“In the second half, we played really well and it’s not easy to play well in the first game of the season especially when you are away from home at a good team.”