In Praise of George Boyd's Eyes

Now maybe fate gave us a good hand here, maybe it was all part of a plan, but had George Boyd not failed his eye test, maybe Alex McLeish may not have walked so readily. We discussed and explored before the possibility that all of this was a cunning elaborate scheme of Fawaz to scurry his way out of a costly sacking of McLeish after soon realising it as a horrendous mistake. But due to the slightly bizarre weaselling out of the Boyd deal, we have ended up in such a positive happy position that on that fateful deadline Day seemed a million miles away.

Boyd in his Forest days

The divisive atmosphere at the time was quite poisonous with many fans angry we didn’t sign a player most never wanted anyway. I remind you all that the same players we had before then are now making the need for a deal for Burke or Boyd look completely negligible. McLeish targeted the midfield as an area he needed to improve, that same midfield is now, admittedly only for 3 games or so, now ripping it up in the Championship. Yes I am getting carried away, and I don’t hide my shame in doing so.

Lansbury, Majewski, or perhaps Reid would have made way for Boyd to have to be included. Extra completion may have stifled some performance in that regard. It may have made Lansbury shrink into shell even more. Perhaps it instilled a backs against the wall mentality that a lot of the football world were decrying us for pulling out of a deal on wholly legitimate grounds.

But that day more than any made McLeish feel unwanted and in an untenable position, and save for wanting face his old demons at Birmingham, he’d have gone then and there. The team was in awful form, creativity stifled, and a general feeling of despair, coupled with Fawaz wielding his sweeping brush on all and sundry in his path.

That was all less than 4 weeks ago. People claimed we were doomed. Relegation was on the horizon, financial meltdown a possibility. A general feeling of doom and gloom. Now look at it. Playoffs discussed with increasingly seriousness, previously fringe players looking quality, and no need for any new attacking left footed midfielders who aren’t all that pacey. Precisely the opposite of Deadline Day. Even Peter Odemwingie got back on the field for West Brom, it seems like Deadline Day was a weird parallel universe not quite related to the current situation.

If, and I mean that loosely, as it was clearly the straw the broke the camel’s back, if it was George Boyd’s vision that freed us from the prospect of McLeish then I say whoever that eye doctor or optometrist or whatever he was, even if he was being told to make a dodgy report is a bloody genius. We may well have still been stuck with McLeish, and the players themselves have spoken how under Davies they have new belief, which makes you wonder what the hell Big ‘Eck was doing. Clearly he was doing something fundamentally wrong. Right now I would think we’d be 4 points worse off, putting us doing in 13th or so, but also without this good feeling, without this good form. Without the hope. Without A hope. Kudos to you, Eye Test Person. We may never know who you were, but you played an integral role in turning our season round.

Where Do We Go From Here?

I swear this isn’t the first time I’ve used this title, and shamelessly ripping off a Filter title too. Anyway, we are in a sorry state of affairs tonight. The world is officially laughing at us after Alex McLeish ended his 40 day tenure as manager. Loan signings he made will have longer Forest careers. His tenure will now surely go down in history as one of the worst mistakes the club made.

So we are again managerless, rudderless and evidently clueless.  Quite what this does for a player’s mindset I’m not sure. On the one hand maybe it makes not much difference but it must be a time of confusion for a squad just getting used to one guys ideas. And as for the backroom staff too, again confusion as to what they do now. Namely Peter Grant who I haven’t seen mentioned what’s happening with him.

Was this all doomed to fail from the beginning? Probably. I was never comfortable with this appointment. For me he isn’t good enough, and he never had a large portion of fans on his side. There are rumours he was only was here as he is a Ferguson acolyte and Fawaz is keen to develop links with him. Sounds feasible, also sounds like utter rubbish. Anyway, he’s gone, many fans wanted this, but it feels to me like many of those same fans are now up in arms about the disarray, which many tried to cultivate anyway. This somewhat puzzles me. On the one hand fans want to have their say, but it appear when the chips are down, in reality, what they want after all is stability.

Now the whole sorry issue is out for all the national media to have a field day. A lot of what will be written read and broadcast will be hearsay, speculation, conjecture and more utter tosh. Some out there have an agenda. Why people insist on constantly citing Daily Mail articles is beyond me. This paper is the worst paper out there. Horrendous right wing dribble for grannies and racists, but some are lapping up what they have to say. Surprisingly about foreign ownership they aren't keen. In their early days of the Hasawi reign they were claiming all sorts, and when that was disproved came up with a new load of twaddle.

My main sources on these matters have stayed a little more removed from this. Perhaps because they don't know what’s happening, or aren’t comfortable with blind speculation I’m unsure. I am not for one minute saying what’s out there are lie. I am merely suggesting it’s an embellishment of the truth. Or perhaps because they don’t have a desire to push stories for attention, more for their accuracy and quality.

There is desperation to believe anything and the in particular the very worst gossip right now, because for some reason a panic and headless chicken mentality kicks in Someone tweets a made up rumour and before you know it’s spread like wildfire. It’s hilarious yet terrifying. This isn’t the worst state this club has ever been in. Not even the worst state it’s been in for a year. So for some to be claiming so is naive and to misunderstand the perilous state of our finances in the summer.  And never forget the state of affairs under Nigel Wray and Irving Scholar. We had to take this offer, we couldn’t wait. To wait would have been suicide as we’d had to start to jettison players. We aren’t there. Yes it embarrassing, yes it’s a mess, but we are still mid table. The playoffs aren’t out of the question.

Remember most of the uproar was because we backed out of a deal with a player many people didn't want. Ok there were promises of a few players but you have to agree deals. Fawaz was perhaps naive in his dealings with clubs. He will learn. And it will be the hard way.

And hopefully he has learnt a lesson in appointing managers here. He will take time over this appointment rather than the rather rushed McLeish one. Maybe he won’t. Maybe he will rush an appointment and panic. And if he panics, there will be one name he can pluck out the hat to try and appease fans, and hopefully make sure he can ride out a storm.

William McIntosh Davies. Regular readers know I am not his biggest fan. Ok he had successes, but his legacy hasn’t been great. Remember he was instrumental in disbanding the reserves and developmental squads. He was vocal in wanting new players and not wanting outside interference. Something he clearly won’t get here. So to call for Davies is to not look at this bigger picture. He wastes a lot of money too and a few of his signings were expensive errors. Was Adebola worth £5k a week? What about the expensive loan signing of Konchesky? David McGoldrick? He isn't the great financial wizard some make out. In his first full season we spent a lot of money on players.  .Around £4-5million and tats on fees alone. Ok, so he does appear to be a good man manager, and that might be what we need now, but he wouldn't last 40 days with this board either, unless he is really desperate for work. Additionally he has a huge point to prove. But that said he fluffed his lines before in the playoffs.

However, what other options are there? Will Adkins who has just been burned y a hands on chairman want another such deal. After the way he was treated by Southampton, which seemed very akin to O’Driscoll he would be right to have his reservations. After that, the list gets grim quickly. The top bets even include Roy Keane, who doesn’t have the greatest record.

We’ve been here all too often lately. What we need is an I’ll say it time and time again, not someone who was “Proven” because for a start they have no loyalty. They also have aloof ideas of themselves. We need a young hungry manager eager to make his mark. It worked for Norwich, it worked for Swansea. Both these managers played football too”! But who is out there? Well I’m not the expert on lower leagues I might be so I am not sure. Karl Robinson was linked before and has MK Dons doing good things. We don’t have the plethora of ex player’s names to pluck from. Laughable I have seen people seriously tweeting Martin O’Neill’s name. Not going to happen ever. He’s at a bigger club, in the top flight, and the club he supported as a boy. To think he’d come here is downright stupid. Nigel for me is still a question mark over his ability. He’s starting to show some signs of working well on a budget, but he's been blessed with a few vary talented youngsters to supplement that. Apart from that there are none likely. Psycho is a mere pipe dream.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is being linked with a quick return as a caretaker. I’m not sure. It seems a bit Joe Kinnear to me. Insofar as to get a guy in who will cheer up the dressing room as apparently Jimmy is very popular. Does he have managerial acumen? Well there's only one to find out, but do we really want an untried manager after the last time under Platt? Well maybe. Platt was an idiot, not all new managers are idiots. Hasselbaink knows the squad and knows this division now.He might work out. He has something to prove.

But what does this all mean for the club. People say no-one will want the job. But there have been far worse chairman who managers have gone and worked for. There will always be an option. Maybe a depleted field, but a field nonetheless. We need patience this time.Don't appoint the first manager you can think of. It was clear they wanted McLeish in before they even sacked O’Driscoll before maybe now it will force the al-Hasawi clan to take stock a little. Have patience. Look around, though there will be calls from some fans for a quick appointment. There are those fearing we will see Fawaz in the dugout at the next game. I don’t think it will get that far. It’s happened before though at other places. No, what we need is for them to realise this was all a mistake and to move on. Maybe the whole Boyd thing was an attempt to get McLeish to walk. Aah no, now I’m doing blind conjecture, you got me doing it too now folks.

Echoes of the McClaren Era

Oh dear. The current state of affairs is not good, nor ideal. Far from it. The question marks remain over whether Alex McLeish is going to be around long enough to see out a seasonal season rather than a football one. It’s been a little over a month since the Scot came in, and at the time that was an acrimonious arrival. It speaks volumes that any departure wouldn’t be with a braying crowd but almost a sense of understanding.

Nobody likes being in a job where they were mis-sold the specifications or the tools been given to you. That is what it seems McLeish feels like, and whether it’s the truth is another matter. But it does feel like when McClaren was moaning about a lack of funds promised.

And although the transfers are different in very large ways, Verhoek and Boyd look like similar bed fellows in impact. For Burke read Routledge, and lord knows who else.

Managers with a “pedigree” though with that tainted and wanting reprove themselves. Making a step down in their book. Failing. There is also the Villa connection. McLeish actually having the job but being hounded out, and McClaren not being offered it despite being approached because of the crowd. There are horrible connections to me all over this sorry affair.

And like McClaren it looks like it will see an early demise to a man with a Scottish surnames tenure at Nottingham Forest. Both took over from managers well regarded by a core of fans (Davies made way for McClaren and O’Driscoll of course for McLeish) Both has strong connections to Alex Ferguson the clubs hoped to play upon, but the managers tenure looks being so brief as to not take advantage of.

I currently have no doubt that McLeish won’t see out February, and even if then, he won’t stay past the summer. Yesterday seemed to be one certain benchmark date to pass. The fact he took training yesterday speaks volumes.

But McClaren stayed on past a rumoured imminent resignation. He didn’t last much longer, results were poor and he cleared off before his reputation was completely destroyed. McLeish might be currently thinking the same. Coupled with a bad transfer window where he feels he hasn’t been backed has been an awful run of results. It doesn’t exactly endear him to fans, which doesn’t make him feel wanted or loved by anyone.

So summer 2011 looks like it’s all happening again, but with different managers, a different board and a different season

What a Difference a Day Makes.

Where to Start


It was wisely once sung in a song “What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours” and nothing can be truer here. This time yesterday there was optimism. There was hope. There was a general good feeling about what would unfold. We were in for 3-4 players, and yeah maybe we wouldn’t get them all, but we’d have a good go.

Well, how did that go eh? Not very well at all might be an understatement.

It’s interesting that for a guy who barely played for the club that George Boyd has had such an impact. This has mainly been off the field. A key wedge between board and Davies was the type of signing Boyd represented. Signings being foisted upon him. Now he has an impact in a way I don’t think many of us could have foreseen.

The question of his eyesight is neither here or there. It’s ridiculous that we’d question his eyesight as a factor. He clearly has been fine thus far in his career, and save for an impending meltdown in his eyes then I can’t see it being a huge factor. But a huge new wedge between a new board and a new manager has been slammed into place.

What is apparent is that this whole sorry charade of Boyd’s eye sight is a smoke screen for the real element of what the club were trying. What that is remains to be seen (no pun intended, or maybe just a little bit)

So you ask, what is that? What is it that you think Fawaz and co were trying to do? I have my theories. There are 3 I have in mind, which vary in possibility. The one I favour is that we used it as a way to try and negotiate out of the deal and into a loan, for cheaper, and then as he’s out of contract we could get him for free. Strong-arm Peterborough into a deal they didn’t want, but felt they had no choice to do. He was already sat there, so surely just surely Peterborough would roll over and let us have him. Well no, there’s one thing about Darragh McAnthoney and that is he is strong willed.

But maybe that’s not the case, and I don’t like blind conjecture without looking at a bigger picture. So what else could it be? My second theory is that Fawaz was reluctant on this deal. Maybe he has an advisor or someone he turns to, and this person was a bit unsure about Boyd. That or the avalanche of tweets at hm when this was rumoured saying don’t sign him (ironically considering the current avalanche of tweets now we haven’t) The first hint of being able to get out the deal with a decent explanation to McLeish about why his target hasn’t been signed, and they took it.

Or finally, maybe they simply have something else, though admitted a free transfer or a loan lined up and pulled the plug with a lame excuse.

Because it is clearly a lame excuse to get out the deal, and that’s what’s annoying. We haven’t been told the truth, and the board have made an almost comical excuse to get out of this. I just worry there is more comical excuses where that came from. Maybe in Kuwait they could get away with this but in England the fans are a different animal.

Now the whole has McLeish walked question is something I’m going to wait and see the fallout from. I suspect not. I suspect he was angry, but will carry on in his post.

It will have made McLeish question why he has took the job, almost seemingly a bit like McClaren in his era. A signing he wanted, not made, and the house of cards tumbles down.

However it’s not a good time to be a Forest fan. The infighting with fans and the now quite open questioning of high up decisions is not good. I’m not saying we shouldn’t question them, but like with Doughty after awhile, it means everything they do gets questioned. Because of a few errors, it all falls under the microscope. Every decision Fawaz makes or tweets, fans will be immediately seeing and fearing the worst.

The timing of everything has been off. Since Fawaz took over it’s been frankly a shambles. It seems under Omar we had stability and progress and since Fawaz came in, it's been turmoil, strife and embarrassment. Had we made the three dismissals of Burt, Clark and Arthur when they took over, no-one would have batted an eye lid. But the timing was wrong. The timing of SoD’s dismissal after a glorious win was wrong. 2 weeks earlier and maybe people would have been a little more understanding. And now this. A lot of people had been against the Boyd signing anyway, so seeing the same people now vociferously tweeting Fawaz is odd, but also it’s because we had been led to believe signings were coming. We were promised signings, surprises and all that. #Surprise might be the new “we’re serious promotion” tag line. Something to use against them.

Had we said no there will be no more signings then maybe we’d have not been angry? But it’s the whole being misled thing that bothers most if feel.

Turbulent times ahead. Be interesting to see what Fawaz has to say.

Whats Needed?

Saturday has made it abundantly clear that we are nowhere near good enough to be in the mix for promotion. No matter what you think of McLeish his record speaks for itself, he knows how to take teams up out of this division. So you’d hope he needs to identify what the problem is. And yet we seem to be struggling to put together a capable team. However, that said it might not be as simple as it seems. Here we look at what might be the key to unlocking the promotion capable side.

I for one think there is no point at looking at the front line anymore. Henderson now means we have 4 strikers who are good at this level, and have proven goal scoring records to back this up.

So is the problem in the midfield? We spent all January and the previous summer saying that this position looks sorted. We had so many options, that anyone targeting it looked mad. We could have a made a team of just midfielders!! However, the ball is just not being held by the midfield and immediately putting the defence under the cosh (don’t worry we’ll come on to the defence in a moment) the way which Watford carved through the midfield before getting to the defenders was alarming. Too often standing off and letting teams play. Is the balance of 1 holding and 3 in front, although narrow, working?

A flat 4 strung across the park is what many have called for, but it’s somewhat old fashioned, and to merely suggest a straight 4-4-2 does negate the whole evolution of tactics. But is Gillett, so lauded early on, doing his role? Not any more in my mind. If you look at the great teams at the moment, they all have that holding midfielder. So for those to cite a midfield with no holding misfield as the key and the way forward (I see people citing a midfield pairing on McGugan and Majewki as an answer....) is somewhat foolish. Man City have Yaya Toure, United use Carrick, Barcelona have Busquets, Juve have Pirlo. We have Gillette. If you look at those players above, they are not only great ball players, but also physical presences. Gillett is anything but a physical presence. I was one of his biggest fans earlier this season, but for me it’s one glaring area of the team we aren't performing. But is it his fault, or is it the structure of the team. If you think of those teams utilising that role, many of them are also playing the more evolved systems whereby it’s more a hybrid of 4-5-1 with a 4-3-3. Those 2 difference between midfield and attack are neither full on strikers, but neither are they midfielders. Look at Chelsea. As well as a sole striker they have very attack minded midfielders (although 3 in this example and not the 2 I have cited) who get forward readily to support. Lampard and Ramires or Obi Mikel would then hold. The same with City. Silva and Milner can get forward to provide the service. City often use a second striker though, a more deep lying number 10. A Trequartista. Aguero or Tevez but they are shorter take this on, with Dzeko as the lump to aim at. Arsenal are a great exponent of this. Barcalona have evolved it to a point they don't even need a striker

That would mean an evolution in our team. One of the 4 strikers would play. Now McLeish has tried to drop Cox deep, but I’m not sure that works. Dexter after Saturdays performance would likely look to be dropped. Leaving Sharp. Sharp is pretty much undroppable this season, but can he play that sole role? Perhaps not, but Henderson possibly could. This is all theoretical of course. I doubt this would be implemented, but is more looking what other teams do.

So in that essence we need a new enforcing midfielder. Moussi is not that man, he is imposing and should be able to play the role, but is so maddeningly inconsistent and is prone to horrific errors to consider that. Moussi though did work well in the Davies teams as that role. If we could get his form right, we already have the right man in the squad.

As for the defence, well when I look at the best teams, my main criticism that ours is too slow almost looks redundant. However, Vidic and Ferdinand at United aren’t the fastest and at Barca, Puyol and Pique aren’t fast either. However I believe we need at least some  pace, if not someone who isn’t going to get turned easily. Watford had two smaller zippy strikers and if we play that sort of team again we might struggle. We did well against Derby because they had a big focal point striker in Sammon that we could go like for like and clear up. But if long balls aren’t going to play through, and it’s all on the ground, our defenders struggle. Ward is slow. As much as he wins most in the air, he often seems to slide in late, when he does at all. Collins I rated until recently, and probably still would, but he too is more comfortable in the air rather than defending on the ground. Would Ayala be any different? Possibly. He’s more cultured, but he still isn’t exactly pacey, and Watford last time did the same thing, when he did play. So therefore a new central defender looks like it should be a priority.

Also where we also went wrong at Watford was the midfield cover. As much as I mention Gillett he isn’t the only one to blame. The midfield doesn’t defend well, because we play narrowly, there is now natural wide protection, and when things get sucked in down the middle we are fine. Attack with semblance of width and we struggle. Look at the goals from Watford. Two came semi wide positions, balls played across. Whenever there were players running through to support and  and the attacked played a squared ball, we just didn't cope with it, but lump it up the middle and we can usually defend. No natural width means any wide protection so attackers are on our full backs without any kind of forward defence. Whereas before we would have had a McCleary, Anderson or Reid, there is no one. Cohen tries to get wide, but down the right side on Saturday we had no natural width at all. And that’s why Jara didn’t look as good as what he has.

Now maybe when McLaughlin settles he can provide that, but we can’t wait. We need it now. Maybe this is why McLeish is so desperate to get in Burke. He could provide this width, and balance, and which paradoxically for the point of my arguments returns us to a flat 4-4-2. But that’s tactics. It’s such a convoluted and complex game that if it was so easy we’d all be managers. The variables on that midfield are almost endless. Different players bring different skills. We need a merry blend, and right now we aren’t getting that. All the best teams have this balance right. The ball winner, the play maker, width, pace, protection. On Saturday a lot of that was lacking.

And all this without mentioning the tactic of merely hoofing the ball long. Which doesn’t work with our players. They weren’t signed for that system, they can’t play that system. Play to your team’s strengths is something McLeish said he’d do. Saturday showed no evidence of that whatsoever.

Feeling a Little Disillusioned

This was a post made forum user Mr Geo Challenge that I have decided to transfer into a article, I do stress this was written last week, so may have been completely negative had it been written today.

Similarly if you ever feel like venting your spleen,come on over to the forum at http://www.soccer24-7.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=80 and post away, we regularly use forum users are guest columnists on here.

Had to come out of forum retirement because this is something increasingly troublesome to me. I will add this will possibly sound more gloomy than I usually feel...

My mind has been parked (poorly) in a paradoxical cul-de-sac of hope and frustration since the new owners arrival. I'm desperate to see Forest actually have some success after seemingly cursing the club with my presence, yet I always thought there was something special about Forest. We were different in my eyes, and not just in a garibaldi-tinted glasses way. Forest always (usually) did things right, we were the good guys, we had a bias for local players, we didn't just chuck stupid money at players that didn't care about the club, when we owed money we didn't just do a Leicester or Portsmouth - we sold our valuables to pay. We tried to develop out own - even under Doughty's failed regime we knew where we were - we had a plan for long term stability with the undeniable good of the club in mind.

This isn't an attack on our new owners because without them we'd be dead as that fish, however I cannot help feeling disillusioned at what I can't help suspect is happening. In sacking the slow and steady O'Driscoll they have blown away all pretence of carefully building - these guys want the Premiership as soon as possible. One point off the playoffs wasn't enough. They needed immediate success. Why?

The cynical demon perched on my shoulder is whispering that they're impatient at best, and at worst they only want our club for their own means - as a showpiece. Are they only interested in Forest in order to bask in the glory of their plaything? And what if their new toy dosen't provide what they wanted? How patient are they willing to be? What has their track record in patience been so far?

I dismiss the above fears - I've no choice, they're unthinkable.

However there's another, almost as equally ugly demon on the other shoulder querying the direction in which Forest are being steered. O'Driscoll was clearly building for the future, he was level headed, transparent with the fans when they disagreed yet steadfast in his decisions, I was frustrated with some of his tactics but he clearly wanted us to play proper football - he was sculpting a vision. He was slowly and steadily moving us forward and building for the future.

Slowly and steadily isn't good enough for our owners though. They wanted better, quicker, and they sacked him, bringing in a new manager not as known for good football, a manager less inclined for transparency (see the "ill" Hutton whose position he didn't think needed wasting on a loan... ah wait... hello Mr Jara), a manager with absolutely no contractual reason to build for the future, in short a manager that will turn us into just another success-hungry (now!!!) football club.

Maybe it's a natural aversion to change, but my fear is turning up to the City Ground in a years time to watch eleven grossly overpaid mercenaries hoofing the ball and cheating their way to mediocrity. I fear us gambling like all the other financially turgid clubs looking for immediate success - it doesn't work and it promotes the erosion of the club's character.

I don't want to watch another Wigan. I want Forest to be something special - I want us to do things different, properly. I want to see us building for the future, playing attractive football, developing out own product and competitive in the Premiership (and inevitably the Championship).

I support our new owners, and even our new manager, however I also fear we're merely chucking 10p in the slot-machine on the off-chance of making a pound.

Derby Day Positives

Well, we didn’t win and so Derby still have the Brian Clough trophy, and a certain amount of bragging rights because it has been 2 years since we beat them. But all that said there are more positives to take from this game.


After the shaky start to McLeish tenure, and when arguably the team was more in SoD’s guise than his own, we struggled, and to be fair, as much as I defend SoD, there were times we lacked steel and the team looked idealess. With McLeish there does seem to be a bit more a mindset that if Plan A doesn’t work, there has at least been a Plan B discussed. Under SoD there never seemed that idea.

So anyway, there are negatives of course as well, we did draw after all, so it’ can’t all be plain sailing. There is of course the fact Gillett got dispossessed by Sammon, and although many demonised Gillett for that error, which happens all the time all over the field, it resulted in a goal. It’s easy to blame Gillett, he plays that role that always seems vilified by Forest fans, and when he makes a mistake it usually results in an attack. What is to forget is the fact there was still a lot to happen to result in a goal, the way the defence stood off and allowed a fairly immobile back man to waltz through, and for Ward to get space and score. So there were other elements to blame, though maybe not directly.

One thing that greatly worried my friend was the use of Darlow in goal, maybe harking back to the days of Barry Roche. He was worried that should he make an error and generally concede a lot of goals that he would in turn see his fledgling confidence shot to pieces and generally destroy his Forest career before it really began. We needn’t have worried, and although yes he didn’t have lots to do, generally what he did have to do he got right, tipping shots over the bar and kicking well, for me its kicking where you can a lack of confidence in a keeper, slicing ball generally indicates he isn’t getting IT right. Darlow had no such worries. And now the Post this Morning carries a headline saying he could be the keeper for years.

On a personal front, and I always do enjoy the more unusual aspect was the ironic jeers you can hear on replays when Cohen misjudges his first shot and slices it. Those ironic jeers all the more funny as they are soon replaced by Forest fans cheering as Cohen tucks it away at the second time of asking. No more than a good stalwart like Cohen deserves, especially with the role this fixture has played in his recent career.

For me Lansbury was good too, showing why he was rated. I have said he needs a run of games in the team, and for me he can be a more mobile form of Reid. His passing is finding its range. He takes a better corner than Majewski, McGugan or any of the other the usual suspects. Bodes well for the ex-Arsenal man.

Another pleasing aspect was the complete anonymity of Will Hughes, the great white hope of Derby, the “albino” as a few have tagged him was largely a passenger in the team, not showing any sense in the rumours of a “dossier” held on him.

Jara continues to impress at right back, and that looks like an astute addition. So much for the moron element on Twitter decrying his signing with “who?” He has been a breath of fresh air at right back.

However all these positives, I was informed by some friends, who are Derby fans that there was unsavoury element, with Greg Halford apparently having spat towards Derby fans. I can’t comment on the element of truth, but will say they aren’t the people who usually lie. A shame if it was true.

But a game we could easily have won, whether it’s Cox shot being 2 inches lower. Sharps last kick of the game that went in (though I don’t hold any doubt that derby had stopped, ergo, potentially making it that it wouldn’t have gone in) More so in the fact we didn’t crumble when conceding, but buckled down and took control of the game again. Even making really attacking changes late on, McLeish noting the importance of wins against your nearest and dearest and going for the jugular which was pleasing, he knows from Rangers days that winning such a game can rally fans and players, and unify them into a run of games. Fair play to him for that.

Had we lost, there may have been unneeded focus on the sackings last week, or a general negative feeling around the club. A commendable draw changes that, and moves us on to a very tricky but winnable game against Watford. It will be a challenge; they are a good side, but then so are we. Game On!

A Call For Calm

Things have been getting a bit heated and silly this last couple of days. People making all kinds of self imposed ultimatums that we must do this and that or McLeish needs to go. You don’t get to make that decision. And to be honest that isn’t going to happen. Barring complete collapse he’ll be here till at least the end of the season and as much as many (me included) weren’t happy with his appointment, we need to move beyond it, because a poisonous angry atmosphere helps no-one.


Now I know how people will react. There will be two camps. Those who applaud the sentiment and those who don’t care and to be honest I’m not out to specifically change people’s minds, but just appeal to reason.

Yes the Cup defeat was shockingly poor. Oldham aren’t exactly on form, aren’t exactly setting the world alight. And only really needed to turn up for less than 10 minutes to completely blow us away. It hurts, but really? What cup success could we expect? A cup run is nice, but this now stops any fixture congestion which can hamper promotion campaigns.

And that looks a beautiful notion right now, a promotion campaign; many are suggesting right now that we are more likely to be embroiled in a relegation dog fight. This is a good old knee jerk reaction you see on twitter and Facebook.

A great many people I saw suggest they liked this appointment are now completely flip flapping. Some of them even went as far as when O’Driscoll was sacked to support it. Yes they somewhat have egg on their faces, but we have only played a few games under McLeish.

For some to be saying if we fail to beat Peterborough and Derby then he HAS to go. That isn’t going to happen. And neither do we want to be a club who brandish the axe so readily. It hardly invites a decent calibre of applicant for next time if we are seen to be completely impatient with managers. Furthermore McLeish was clearly the man they always wanted and once he was ready, O’Driscoll was the fall guy. It was just timed badly. When it was said they approached the layers about who they wanted, it was clearly a move to bring in an intermediary, an Interim boss till someone they felt more suited for the al-Hasawi tastes wanted the job.

Don’t get me wrong, this has all left a sour taste in my mouth and I do feel sorry for Sean. His reputation has if anything potentially been enhanced this whole sorry episode to the point he turned down the Barnsley job yesterday. He was also strongly linked with Wolves too. And it’s on this note I address my next point.

Wolves appointment of Dean Saunders speaks volumes to me about certain ex Forest boss. Billy Davies. Now for me maybe Wolves would have been a perfect fit for Billy, so why not even mentioned or linked? It seems to me his name has been poisoned and muddied by his boardroom shenanigans and wars with owners. For this point it seems no one wants to take that risk on him. So when people keep going on about Bringing Billy Back, this to me speaks louder than words. If he is so wonderful... Why has no-one else taken him on?

A lot of people have also been sending, if not abusive, then questionable Tweets towards Fawaz al-Hasawi, I feel if things don’t improve this will in increase in number and volatility. It really isn’t going to help the cause and I get people are frustrate d and angry, but you really think this will create a strong bond? Remember, we were in such parlous financial health we could well having done a Portsmouth if it hadn’t been for them. And people are getting angry? It’s ridiculous. I saw one guy tweet at Fawaz son, that he had a feeling the family were going to destroy Forest and do more harm than good. Really what good is it to be texting the son of our owner something like that? Where in anyone’s psyche does that seem a good idea? Because I’ve seen it before with people tweeting Michael Doughty about his father, and we all know what that brought about.

I think it’s a problem of the age we live in whereby the people who make decisions are available in ways we never saw before, and people seem to think they these people are instantly answerable to them. They aren’t of course. We are merely customers of a particular brand in a market at the end of the day, and although the average football fan, me included, feels more than that, in a truly economic sense that’s all we are. Do I feel Amazon, or Fosters directors should be answerable to me on social media because I don’t like their decisions? It is over simplifying matters but it is the basic crux of it.

I didn’t agree with the appointment of McLeish but neither do I agree with the acidic hate campaign being led against his regime already. As many other shave pointed out Davies wasn’t’ a popular choice amongst fans at the time, so in essence we need to give anyone a chance. I worry when people seemingly want their club to fail just because they don’t like someone involved. I sit near a fairly volatile character in the Trent End who I have mentioned before; I genuinely question why he goes to games as he seems to garner no enjoyment from the experience even when we play well. Something like this atmosphere is festered by these characters. Those who think because they shout loudest their opinion is worth more. He reacts angrily when some other people who sit adjacent to me tell him to stop moaning and support the team, complaining I pay my wages to come here. No-one forces you though. We need to escape this negative mindset that for some reason we can spout what we want, when we want, how we want and to whom we want. Yes you can, but is it right? No. And that’s my point. It’s only going to exacerbate problems.

Keep Calm and Carry On Supporting Forest

Many of you from Twitter and Facebook and the forums have been like myself, angry and can’t understand the reasons for O’Driscolls dismissal, but then even more angry about appointing a manager that many including myself perceive as negative. Had we replaced O’Driscoll with a big named manager, or someone with excellent pedigree we may have understood.


With an extra day to think about this, and I needed to get down my feelings yesterday as they were raw and fresh, I am not as angry as what I was.

For two main reasons. Firstly the realisation that this has happened and nothing can be done about it by me directly. So essentially it becomes a case of get on with it, accept it. Make the best. I may not be happy, and feel the shabby way Sean was treated makes me feel less happy about my club. But there is nothing I can do to change this. Hence the Carry on supporting Forest section of the headline. What will be key for the players at this stage will be the support of the fans.

In terms of keep clam, well that’s just what I mean. Getting irate and tweeting at Fawaz about this appointment isn’t going to help. On Boxing Day night, me like many replied to Fawaz’s tweet about sacking O’Driscoll unhappily. It is the first time I have ever done such a thing, as usually I cringe at those tweeting Fawaz, but I was moved to make my opinion known.

McLeish is our manager now whether you like it or not, and so we have to move on and get behind them. Carrying on some campaign to undermine him and the team will not help whatsoever. It will hinder the progress of the team.

It is also a clear marker that the goalposts have been moved on expectation. Promotion is wanted this year. Clearly the al-Hasawi family believe O’Driscoll wasn’t going to deliver. I am certain the remit given to McLeish is getting us up. And so they have employed a man who has done exactly that before. So in that essence it’s easy to see why he was chosen.

Other managers who have gotten teams promoted are either employed elsewhere or fell back off the popular bandwagon long ago. Names like Phil Brown, Paul Jewell, and Owen Coyle have all had their stars dimmed by subsequent performance.

And to be honest would we rather be Stoke, or would we rather be a well regarded by perennial also rans in the Championships. Ok they don’t play pretty football, but they are being successful.

What does irk me is that one critique of O’Driscoll was his tendency to be conservative with team set ups, and this is something McLeish has done before. As others has said if it gets results so what? Well true in part, but when we just scored 4 goals at home and looked unstoppable in an attacking context and you bring in a man known for defensive rigidity, its nice going from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Maybe McLeish will temper his usual style. Maybe his time off has changed his mind set. Let’s be honest the defence does need work, so good in that regard. But what it may well reign in is our midfield flowing play.

A lot of people worry it may change Billy Sharps mind about his time here. That might well be, but it’s a lot of the rapport with fans that Billy has as much as anything.

I have probably merely echoed a lot of what I said last night, but I think some of those points need reiterating. We may well be angry and up in arms. But we also need to move on with this sorry debacle, and see if there can be good that comes from it. Money may well be spent in January, and maybe McLeish will build on the foundations laid. There’s a lot of expectation going to come now. We made this change to get promotion. If we don’t go up, then and only then can we really openly question this decision. If it gets us up, then it might have been a right decision.

I called Huddersfield into question when they sacked Clark last year, but Huddersfield gets promoted. They made a right call that too many looked like it was questionable. Sometimes hard and unpopular decisions need to be taken. Perhaps this was one.

O'Driscoll Out, McLeish Comes In

So around this time yesterday I found out the news about O'Driscoll being removed from the manager’s role. I was in the pub, at the time and to be honest most people, who I was with, fans of different clubs, simply couldn't understand why we had made this decision.

But we had. We really had just sacked our manager after a glorious win over Leeds. Ok now in the previous games things hadn’t gone right, but it looked to me at the time they had someone clearly lined up. And the speed we have got to this point suggests to me this was all in place.

It is a great shame,I had a lot of time for O'Driscoll and what he was trying to do. The football was good, the players seemed to like him and everything seemed to be moving in the right direction. Now that direction has changed

So Alex McLeish, Big Eck, is our manager.

Let’s look at the positives. He has succeeded at this level with Birmingham before. He won many trophies with Rangers, and has top flight, European and International managing pedigree.

That said he does play extremely agricultural football, took Birmingham down twice and narrowly missed relegation whilst at Villa. There are some extremely bad signings he has made in the past, but then every manager has that.

It's the quality of football for some that will be the issue. He plays a more pragmatic game rather than O'Driscoll's fluid football approach. The more direct approach of course as we all know is not what we ideally like to see at City Ground, more so because of the blessed Brian Clough years. When we have tried to play a direct game in the past we don’t succeed. Whether this is because we never take to the manager or whether it’s simply we haven’t had a decent manager for that game isn't even for debate. Cotterill & Kinnear will not be on any City Ground hall of fame.

McLeish sets teams up to not lose, which is a critique some had of SoD in his few games we played 1 up front. McLeish sides don’t score many goals. Both his Birmingham and Villa teams were fairly goal shy in the last few seasons, so this doesn’t' exist excite me.

Couple the lack of goals, and the direct football it doesn't bode well for an instant rapport with fans. There have been people already bemoaning the appointment and even some on Twitter trying to start a virtual lynch mob with the aim of forcing him out as soon as possible. Now that is just silly and being very anti the club. I don’t approve of the last 24 hours or so at our club, but I will get behind them as I do every Saturday. In 2 or 3 weeks when this has all blown over I guess not too many will be fussed if we start with wins. Furthermore at the end of the day none of us really have a say. the al-Hasawi's for whatever reasons have decided this is what needed to happen and that they hopefully know what they are doing., 

That said this move worries me that we may have owners who are too trigger happy. It speaks volumes that most fans have been in complete surprise and even anger at this.

But I think what we really do is dust ourselves off and move on for the good of the team. Dwelling on the dismissal and bringing a negative force to the ground won’t do anyone any good.