Bradford City 1, Nottingham Forest 2 - They come to bury Caesar not to praise him.

That was Sir Alex Ferguson's Shakespearean take on Man United's Euro clash with Rangers last week.

But it could easily have been said regarding Nicky Law's position on Saturday.

Reading the angry e-mails on the club website ahead of the Forest match, it forecast a wall of hate greeting the appearance of the City boss on the touchline.

In the 24 hours leading up to the game, more than 370 messages were posted by fans - four times the daily average.

So Law was going to face a gauntlet more Galatasaray than Bradford City according to the internet agitators. But what's this? City kick off at a rocket-fuelled pace, win three corners inside a minute and score within five.

Suddenly everyone it seems is Law's buddy again as his players turn in their best home performance of the season. The crowd are even making some noise.

Cruelly the sting in the tale condemned City to another defeat. Totally unjust, maybe, but the bare facts will show that they got beaten again.

Andy Reid's 93rd-minute drive with his weaker right foot arrowed past the unsighted Alan Combe and Forest's mass of away fans were jubilant. It also gave the punters waiting to have a pop at the boss the opening they had thought would not come.

Suddenly a sprinkling of printed "Law Out" banners popped up in the Sunwin Stand just a few rows behind their target. Straight away, though, there were greater numbers sat alongside the perpetrators urging for the messages to be removed.

A steward was even summoned as tempers threatened to boil over in the aftermath. "We still lost" bawled a protester who refused to be shouted down.

And of course he had a point. City had still lost despite a spirited, battling performance light years ahead of the roll-over at Watford the week before.

Dean Windass, the proud new captain, cursed the harsh verdict.

"You can't fault the effort and desire of all the players," he said. "It's just such a cruel game at times.

"We've performed well for 70-80 minutes - unfortunately it's a 90-minute game. But we started dropping deeper and deeper and just feared the worst when they scored.

"When you're at the bottom of the league the fear factor takes over. When you're going well like Forest then you are pushing forward looking for another goal.

"We kept Reid and Marlon Harewood very quiet but Reid will get the headlines. He didn't have a kick all game and then goes and gets the winner.

"I feel sorry for Nicky because he's working on a shoestring. Nottingham Forest have got million pound players and we played them off the park for long periods."

Five faces were changed from Vicarage Road. The most notable absentees were injury-enforced, David Wetherall of course and Mark Paston, who sees a specialist today to examine a stomach complaint he has been carrying for the past fortnight. That meant a quick recall in goal for Alan Combe, with just one reserve outing behind him following his lung problem.

But the Scot had barely touched the ball when City grabbed the lead.

Andy Gray forced a blunder out of Forest defender John Thompson and squared for Michael Branch, another on the comeback trail.

He needed no invitation to turn home his fourth goal of the campaign just under the crossbar.

Forest were rocking as City threatened again. Branch squared for Windass but the ball was just behind him and on the stretch the skipper could not hit the target.

A second goal then and who knows? But Forest slowly but surely gained a foothold in a game that ebbed and flowed throughout.

It looked like City's luck was in when Combe was wrong-footed by Matthieu Louis-Jean's drive that deflected off team-mate Danny Sonner. As the ground held its breath, the ball struck the inside of the post and bounced across the goal line before spinning fortuitously behind for a goal-kick the other side.

But the escape proved a mirage and with 13 minutes left the visitors drew level. A sloppy City free-kick went straight through to keeper Darren Ward whose instant clearance was flicked on for Eoin Jess to slide in the goal against his old club he'd been praying for.

City, to their credit, pushed again and Gareth Edds forced a diving save from Ward. Until, in the final minute of the three added on, they switched off again. Gregor Robertson switched the play from the left wing and Reid ran through, backing off defenders to locate the bottom corner.

Forest boss Paul Hart acknowledged the feeling in the home dressing room. "Bradford must feel harshly done to in many ways," he said.

That will seem cold comfort to Law when he glances at the league table. Wrong-footed Danny Forrest, pictured, curses his luck as Wes Morgan storms away with the ball.