City boss Peter Taylor hopes victory against Nottingham Forest will prove a perfect pick-me-up for his side after a disappointing start to their league campaign.

Goals from David Syers and James Hanson sealed a memorable Carling Cup first-round win, while banishing lingering memories of last week’s disappointing defeat at Shrewsbury.

There is a short turnaround before City return to league action against Stevenage on Saturday and confidence will be high going into the home league opener.

Taylor said: “We did say at half-time that you work hard in pre-season and you don’t want to lose two out of two. That’s not a great start because then, all of a sudden, the confidence dips.

“We weren’t great on Saturday against Shrewsbury, they were better than us second half. But last night I thought we were very good second half and did very well.

“It’s given the players a massive boost but they’ve had to work extremely hard.”

City had trailed Forest 1-0 at the interval but a Taylor masterstroke turned the game on its head.

The City chief introduced Hanson, Syers and Simon Ramsden as half-time substitutes, while also switching from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3.

Taylor said: “We were disappointing first half. We probably knew how good Forest are and some of the players felt they shouldn’t be on the same pitch as them. But second half we tried to make it more like a decent cup tie.

“We weren’t playing as well as we would’ve liked and the big fella up front (Hanson) gave us another option.

“Credit to James, that’s the best he’s looked since we came back to pre-season because he won every header.”