F.A. Cup Glory

Well we all by now know the result and if you don't what rock were you hiding beneath for the last 24 hours, but a glorious televised 5-0 for Forest versus an admittedly under strength West Ham saw Forest sail through the Fourth Round.

Paterson

Forest saw the return of Moussi to the line up for Vaughan and Paterson of course in the team on the other flank to Abdoun for Mackie. Save for that the team was pretty much the same as played over Christmas. 

To say things started well is an understatement and from the off we looked the better team. We took a relatively early lead when Paterson was fouled in the area and Abdoun snatched the ball to take the penalty ahead of the likes of Reid and Lansbury who had scored penalties before this season.

Well I said to my friends when he stepped up that I was worried he'd try something stupid. He of course did. One assumes the keeper hadnt been aware of Abdoun or he might have guessed he'd try a "Panenka" penalty. It was almost predictable. Had it been saved he'd have looked monumentally stupid, instead he pulled it off and was acclaimed by some on the net as a genius.

The rest of the half was pretty much us having more of the ball and creating half chances, but the best other chance of the half fell to Ravel Morrison for West Ham whose free kick was well flicked over the bar by the hand of Darlow.

In the second half we overcame a dodgy period to go and complete the rout of West Ham. Jamie Paterson came of age on a Forest shirt with a hat trick of quality and a little bit of luck. His first was a low drilled shot into the corner from a Halford knock down, the second was deflected in from a defender into the bottom right corner, and his third and final goal he collected the ball out wide, ran across the edge of the area and finished into the corner again fora glorious hat trick.

Andy Reid finished the rout with a goal after a cut back from Abdoun and finished into the top of the net. This didn't flatter us at all. It was deserved and I felt sorry for the West Ham fans who must have started so early in the day to come up and watch something so abject. This lasted a short while. I know that when the tables are turned the sympathy is so slow in coming apart from the mocking. 

The attention is all more about Allardyce in today's media, will he hang on to his job after this? What does it mean for their transfer activity? It is less about what it means for Forest, or how good we are, but that's what gets the attention. Not the smaller club, but the Premiership sides travails.. That's the way of the world I guess.

Glorious Boxing Day Win

Forest got their first home win since September against QPR on Boxing Day with a spectacular and deserved win.

It could and should have been more than the 2-0 win we did have but I think every single Forest fan will no have no complaints about this game having won easily.

QPR it has to be said were not as good as you'd expect, and with a cavalier attacking midfield that offered nothing in defence, I felt it underlined the need for a deeper midfield that we play. Phillips often looked dangerous, but Zamora offered nothing, Kranjcar looked dangerous as he has obvious talent, but his ranged efforts were either wide or saved.

The goals, well to start on that is to overlook the renaissance of Abdoun. I have been critical of him in recent weeks as anyone who follows the Forest 24-7 twitter account will surely testify. But this game he was wonderful. So to describe the goal is to describe a wonderful piece of work from Abdoun. A well whipped cross after scaring the QPR right back and Halford headed in at the back post. It's the Abdoun we hoped for when we first signed him.

The second goal was also an Abdoun assist, and this is where the controversy comes. He played the long ball, and it bypassed Halford, however he didn't touch the ball and therefore didn't assist so Reid wasn't offside. The QPR players saw the flag and stopped, but as there was no whistle, Reid carried on and after a brief conversation the goal counted and QPR went in a rage. Pointlessly. You don't stop without the whistle, it was a basic taught to me as a 6 year old playing at school. Play to the whistle. And to see top professionals claiming otherwise points out how far removed many of these guys are from what we play. It also points out their complete knowledge they knew they were culpable and do not get to make decisions.

Even Joy Barton, suspended and presumably watching at home piped up on Twitter to support them saying their players stopped when the flag was raised. But again Joey, that's not the roles. Flags don't stop play. Whistles do.

And the QPR fans and players citing this as unfair need to remember we battered them. We had many many other gilt edged chances. Halford had a great opportunity, Hobbs had one stopped on the line. And that's just two, there were several others I have since forgotten.

It was great to see, and at home with a good crowd. I wonder what Leeds will bring tomorrow. We often have humdingers against them. Bring them on.

King Darius Rises For Late Win

It isn’t very often in life I refer to an ancient Persian King in a title of a Nottingham Forest blog article, but there we go, that’s the beauty of this. Forest left it late against Barnsley on Saturday to seal the 3 points, with a win that was more than deserved. After all we hit the woodwork 3 times in this game additionally to the goals.
That maybe unfair on a decent Barnsley side that look better than last year’s model. Although their own goals were from dead ball situations they did occasionally look dangerous on the attack.

The main element of pre match conversation would be who replaced Guedioura, the Frenchman Moussi getting that nod. Some had thought we may go to a flatter 4 in midfield with Abdoun and Paterson wide with Reid and Lansbury pulling deeper than usual. But now, the narrow diamond remained, with Moussi at its base, Majewski spearheading it, with Reid and Lansbury making up the rest. Cohen remained at left back, and Cox replaced the auxiliary striker that was Halford up front.

We had the better early chances, Mackie getting in clear behind the defence seeing the veteran Pollitt save his effort, and Cox hitting the post from a lovely little move involving Lansbury and Mackie, which may also have been a save from Pollitt.

And then Reid from a free kick in nearly a copy of the Wigan goal curled it high into the corner, but that just little bit too close to the post, seeing it come back off and ricochet around before being cleared.

When we did take the lead it had been a good build up. Mackie gain getting that yard or two of space to shoot, and seeing his effort saved by Pollitt. The only person chasing up though was Simon Cox to give the Reds the lead. Pollitt was angry no defending was following in to tidy up, and his defence seemed to suggest he should have parried it the other way, but that’s neither here nor there as far as I am concerned, Cox showed instinct and quick reactions to follow the ball in and to finish, and put the Reds in front.

Barnsley to be fair didn’t cower though, and their reaction was quick. Perkins who had played well made a run into the box, and pushed the ball past Moussi who clumsily blocked his run and gave away a penalty. O’Grady netted the equaliser, and the lead was already squandered. At this juncture around me there were tuts and noises of derisions aimed squarely at Moussi who most saw already as a liability in that role. He had just proved us correct again.

A word on Moussi, he had his usual type of display where you’re not entirely convinced his arms and legs are reacting to the same brain waves, often careering into trouble and then back out of it. He wasn’t as bad as some will make out, but against a good team he would be found wanting badly, someone like Wigan would have had a field day with him against them.

We took the lead again with the last action of the first half. A free kick Barnsley weren’t happy about being give and Reid, with his usual great delivery caused Etuhu to put past his own keeper. Reid free kicks must be a nightmare to defend, as never sure if dipping in or someone ghosting at the back, defenders feel the need to flail something at the ball to clear it, and as in this case that can result in it going in their own goal.

Barnsley’s second half equaliser was a screamer. Unstoppable, and applauded by a good many Forest fans. It was one of those goals you just have to accept that was destined to go in from the moment Cywka swung his boot. A rocket from 30-35 yards, it was f course given away by Moussi for a free kick in the first place.

And so we toiled for a subsequent winner, and by changing our approach by bringing on Paterson and Abdoun the match was swung. Abdoun excites the crowds, many having seen his Youtube vids (that said I’m sure you could make Jason lee look ace from video highlights) These two started playing a bit more directly and the inter play down the left wing was exciting.

Paterson would hit the post, our third time with an effort from around 20 yards, at first I thought a pass better option but it wet so close. Then Cox had an effort that Pollitt spilled and it went narrowly wide.
And then came the introduction of Darius, fresh from his court acquittal the big man looked hungry and ready. Darius differs from our previous big physical presences in that he can play on the ground too, but his goal was pure aerial threat. A corner coming in he bulleted a header in low to give us a win. Barnsley’s defenders looked frustrated having let the one biggest threat from corners get a relatively free header 10 yards from goal.

It was a deserved win, that there is no doubt, but we were made to work for it. The happy change is now there are different types of options if things don’t go our way. Instead of last year, where we’d have done a relatively like for like change of McGugan for Majewski, this year we have a different type of player to bring on. As I said the interplay down the left filled me with a lot of hope about potential options down there. Abdoun Reid and Cohen seemed to reach a quick knowledge of how to use each other.

All in all a creditable result. It keeps us right in there after the Wigan defeat, and with Middlesbrough up next we look a hard challenge to beat at the City Ground, if we just sort out that DM slot.

The Stars Are Aligning

Ok, maybe a little over the top as a headline and maybe a little presumptive after 2 league games and a cup win against lower league opposition, but the optimism amongst some fans is finally being played out on the pitch. Forest, as we all know are notoriously slow starters to the season. Well so far so good.

Beating Blackburn late on as we did, as I pointed out last season when we sneaked late points shows a resilience to not give up or let heads drop. And ok, the goal was a little gifted, I’m not sure exactly what Jake Kean was trying to do being so far from goal and trying to claim the ball over a player, but it cost Rovers.

At best he’d have fouled Mackie and given away a penalty, but he was never going to succeed, and when Mackie ended up with the ball and played it to Darius Henderson, he still admittedly had a lot to do. There were still 16 yards and two defenders to finish past. Which he did, with aplomb.

My brother is a Sheffield United fan, who always waved about Darius, and though I wasn’t always convinced, he always caused us problems. I’m beginning to see that hype a little more now. Instead of being a shambling huge bloke we ask to just put his head on anything, he has other qualities too, shielding the ball, holding it up, and finishing. The one thing I have been warned about is there’s a ref who takes exception to his style of play, he will get penalised every time and see no joy, and maybe even sent off. Which we see all too often with Blackstock anyway.

We have weapons yet to be utilised too. Abdoun is still a relatively unknown to Forest, and although scurrilous rumours have suggested we never wanted him from the Greek press this week, they have been scoffed at by Jim Price, who insists Billy sanctioned the purchase, and the only questions to answer are his fitness and international clearance. Loosely translating an Algerian (or French) news source they say that Abdoun isn’t match fit yet, as his fitness when signing was behind his new team mates due to the later start of the Greek season, that he hadn’t done as much work.

It’s this that bothers me with Forest fans at times. We don’t play a new guy, and rather than do any research, people merely suggest Davies doesn’t like him, or didn’t want him. We’ve played 3 games!! He might want to slowly work him into the side.

Although it’s not been a free scoring side thus far, Henderson’s goal will hopefully silence those same voices that moaned that strikers weren’t scoring, which completely misunderstood how last year’s team was set up. For me too many people see a formation as basic. 4-4-2 works as it’s linear, they understand, everyone has easily defined roles. But you get too many idiots who see other formation as defensive or not understand a new role for a player other than the traditional defined roles. Too often they saw a sole striker as defensive rather than actually freeing up the midfield to play freer roles and encourage them to attack quickly.

In what is going to be a tough start on paper, the forthcoming matches with Watford, Wigan, and the next match with Bolton should prove a tough battle. If we come through these matches well it will illustrate where we are. Wigan have been active in the market following relegation, and Watford were there or there about's last season. You’d assume one of those should be a defeat, but it’s very hard to tell at the moment.
Interestingly enough, it could all rest on ex players performing on their day, Holt at Wigan and McGugan at Watford, with the former target Darren Pratley at Bolton potentially being a thorn in the side.

But so far so good. The omens are looking good. Long may it continue.