A Week of Hysteria

Apologies again folks for the slightly scattergun approach in updating the blog. I have been busy preparing for Christmas and had a number of life changes I am adapting too. This should all settle down.

I would write a review of the Ipswich game but I think that ship has sailed somewhat and would be a bit of a waste of time to write a match report.

That said the failure to beat a side we are usually successful against and the fact it as goalless has whipped up a storm of hysteria again. Now that were are getting deep in the season there are fans who think that because we aren’t in the top 2 yet or that we are yo-yoing in and out the playoffs that this is failure.

May I remind those people that there is always a Johnny come-lately to the playoffs. That nothing is decided in December and that in all reality these people basically change their mind on the state of play with every result.

Last week after winning against Wednesday and being in the top 6 they’d have all been happy. But following a slightly cryptic Billy interview where we assured us all he gets along with Fawaz despite anything thinking the opposite and then the Ipswich draw that suddenly it was all hand to the pump and time to panic.

Some of what has been said on the net this week is utterly laughable and I’ll cover that later. There are some users I could do a Twitter Idiots special on with the pearls of utter nuttishness than fall from their head through their fingers on the keyboard and on to your screen.

This weeks menagerie of weird rumours was that Jim Price has left/ been sacked / walked the plank. Furthermore are the rumours Billy wants out, but wants sacking to get his new shiny four year contract paid off. There are numerous fanciful transfer rumours flying around too.

I think what it illustrates, and I will look into later, is that students are bored. When they break up from Uni many have nothing to do and seems a handful must be happy just making up rumours. In my head I am thinking and it seems this happens every time around school and Uni holidays, so in my head I’m thinking bored kids and teenagers just make up crap for attention of for Lolz or whatever they think they are doing these days, rather than the actual creating frictions and fissures in the fan base.

It’s ridiculous. It’s not even Christmas, we are on the edge of the playoffs with a number of top players returning from injury and people seem to want to make out this is failure. Maybe your retarded standards but those of us in the real world realise teams don't often just sit in the top 6all season. There are peaks and troughs, and to use a Billy phrase. Up s and downs, Twists and turns.

Enjoy the ride

I would also like to finish this piece, which is my first in a while by paying a momentary tribute to Kev Finnegan, from Vital, who passed away. I often disagreed with his views, but he’s been a contributor to the online Forest community for so long and that can’t be forgotten, he will be missed.

Resurgent Reds

Following the dual wins against Ipswich and Wednesday the renewed optimism and verve around the team is palpable. We face what could be a troublesome fixture against a struggling Wolves team on Saturday that could be a challenge as they scrap for survival, but the confidence that oozes from this team right now makes me doubt that. The Reds went to Sheffield, and beat Wednesday in a very convincing first half performance, and although by the end we were holding on a little, Wednesday didn’t really look like scoring. The same almost with a resolute Ipswich team. Hard to break down, but eventually we ground out the result.

The Owls get it completely wrong in the first half, and the two teams set ups saw Forest run rampant, and probably should have scored more than the now inevitable Majewski goal. It was a wonderful goal too, a great team move and unselfish play that led to Majewski having a comparatively easy slot home to put us one up and ultimately give us the three points.

The wonders of the current middle 3 being so interchangeable are that it makes them hard to mark as they can switch intermittently in their role. Though none are explicitly the central or the wide man, the set up sees Lansbury pull right and Majewski left, with Reid given space to play his passes to the two front men, with Guedioura coming in behind. But that’s simplifying it. They react to the pitch in front of them and pop up anywhere, making them very hard to defend. Certainly hard to man mark.

When Wednesday did get it right putting on a extra pacey wide man it forced us to adapt, to keep the midfielders in check to cover for the extra forwards and wide play, pulling Lansbury to help cover Jara, and Majewski to cover Cohen. Johnson meant that two pacey wide men were involved as well as Antonio, and between the two they created more forward play if not chances.

That said Darlow didn’t have a great deal to do, what he did he mostly did right, although his parry out at one point in second half could have caused a problem, the Reds always looked relatively comfortable. Even bringing on Lascelles to cover for Collins, though he could have given away a penalty for hand ball. There were a couple of calls for penalties for ball to hand type incidents and to be honest yes I have seen some of them given, but that doesn’t make them right.

A word on Collins, back in the side in Halford absence, he has become the easy man to dislike, in the way that Forest fans just have to have at least one unpopular player in the side. Gillett and Collins seemed to be archetypal of the loss of form in January/ February, and therefore have become the target of often quite unfair abuse. Collins of course was instrumental in the early season in settling down the defence in its infancy of being together, and yes he suffered a loss of form, but there's no need when he was announced in the team to be hyper critical and for some to even suggest they’d hoped he had played his last game for the club. And like it or not he is the club captain so was always going to get the arm band. For one he is a vocal contributor at the back. Too often people just think the longest serving player should be the captain, but that simply isn’t a great policy for choosing who should be the leader on the pitch. Davies is an expert at identifying his teams leaders, so if he stuck by Collins, and if he chose him to play, then get behind him,, Davies knows more than me or you, so if he thinks he should play, then play. Lascelles hasn’t played much competitive football this year, and is relatively inexperienced, to chuck him in there could well have been costly. And a few months at Stevenage don’t equate to experience before anyone tries to fire that one at me.

The Ipswich game was a tougher cookie to crack. That was until they decided to start getting themselves sent off. On an extremely misty night where from my Trent End seat the Bridgford End goal was quite often impossible to see clearly, the Reds eventually prevailed against 9 men Ipswich.

Ipswich had a call for penalty that some were adamant was in the box, following a foul I believe by Majewski. It was right on the border, and although their player fell in the box, the initial foul and contact was right on the edge. In my view the right call, I haven’t seen any replays though. Apparently the Sky Sports News reporter at the ground was adamant it was a penalty.

He was also adamant that martin shouldn’t have been sent off despite lashing out at Lansbury. Admittedly Lansbury did over react in going down, but it achieved the aim of getting Martin dismissed. He may or may not have gotten away with it had Henri not reacted. Basically had he stayed on feet the manager would not have been forced to act in the same way. That said Martin should have been booked for a challenge on Guedioura just before, which wasn’t even a free kick somehow.

And when the second red came for Stearman for what was a stupid yellow, it should have been easy. Ipswich though completely changed their team model to defend at all costs. The point which they’d have been pleased with was now all they could really hope for, and so they attempted to keep what they had. Credit to Mick McCarthy who has supported both decisions to a certain degree.

In that regard with a rigid rear guard to break down, and our incessant desire to pass the ball into the goal all night, the game required something different. Step forward Lewis McGugan. In a game with a packed defence we needed someone not afraid to take that shot on that might not be on. Guedioura aside, this time mostly shoot with clear opportunities. Majewski although scoring from range, is usually when he had space to compose, Lewis at his best doesn’t need much space, just that split second to see it’s on and it hit, like the goals from two years ago, often a shot out of nothing.

And with all that build up, a heavily deflected almost mis-hit left shot from McGugan won it. Leaving the keeper stranded, the ball went in. It should have been easily 3 points wrapped up. Go on and get a second whilst Ipswich have to come out of their shell a little. However we sat back and passed around in defence with minutes left. Indeed when 6 minutes went up I was almost fearing the worst. The old demons of not holding on, and giving up leads still haunt us. But it seems under Davies maybe they have been banished. Ipswich had chances, none clear cut, but chances. We simply tried to time waste despite a two man advantage rather than try to see the game out. Ipswich fans taunted this with cries of “we only have 9 men” and they were right to do so. We shouldn’t be holding on at home against Ipswich with 9 men, that’s a simple fact.

One Defeat Does Not Ruin a Season

So last night was fairly lacklustre. And many a fan thought we’d easily win after our previous exploits against Wolves, and being on the 4 match run of form we were on. This forgets of course the famous reasoning many use for the unpredictability of the Championship that it’s a very even division. Anyone can beat anyone.

So last night when you see no end of people pre match presuming and assuming we would beat Ipswich because of League Position illustrated the extremes of emotions of Forest fans. These same fans who assumed the 3 points were in the bag were the same ones who also cried foul and have decided this means the squad is inept, Camp incapable and that we might as well pack up any hopes of promotion.

I even saw one guy suggesting that anyone saying large squads take time to gel is an idiot. Bear in mind we haven’t had a settled defence this year, and the one thing you hear time and time again about defences is that they need understanding, telepathy of where each other is. And most of all to be settled. All great defences are. Ours isn’t settled. So with new personnel in each time takes adjustment, and adjustment brings errors. Think of the last 80’s early 90’s defences, or the defence that took us to third in the premier league. Settled. Organised. Consistent. Laws; Walker; Wilson; Pearce. Lyttle; Cooper; Chettle; Pearce. Settled defences that played week in week out with each other. We currently haven’t had a defence that has that.

The same guy also suggested professional footballers should be able after a while to seamlessly fit into any role and the team carry on regardless. This isn’t how life works in work. Think of your job, you might settled with one expertise, if your thrown out of your comfort zone it makes you question decisions, maybe pause, maybe be too cautious. Maybe make a mistake. This is what happened. This is what surprisingly hasn’t happened much yet.

I would say yes we have spent money, but considering where we expect to be we are ahead of schedule. No teams which are any good gel immediately. Hence why it took Man City several years to win the League. United, Arsenal, Chelsea, there is a core of players who have played together for a while, with new people bought in piecemeal. Not wholesale.

This isn’t harking back to the old 5 year plan under Hart, but remember the al-Hasawi’s said they have a scope of two years to be promoted. They recognise this can’t be done over night, and if you look at the way Cardiff has toiled for years being just off the mark in terms of promotion it does suggest that as well as being good enough what you need mostly is a huge element of luck.

We haven’t spent as much as on our team as Blackburn spent on one player in Jordan Rhodes so to compare the spending is churlish. We were close to relegation last year and lost half that squad and most of what was good. So this year was always for building. Too many fans have had impatience and when things are going well they are quiet. The moment we lose to anyone or underperform they start with the moaning.

Going back to the core reason for this article, losing to Ipswich is not the embarrassing defeat some make it out to be. They have some good players. They also now have a very good manager. They are struggling because they had in my opinion a very poor manager. Jewel is not a good boss and the fact he stuck around so long surprised me, but then Ipswich are a very patient club.

I also laugh at how after one defeat people immediately try and point out how they were right and how certain players have to be playing. It’s a constant cycle with our midfielders, when McGugan isn’t playing some say he should be, when he’s in the team and underperforming immediately some want him dropped and someone else restoring. No one is ever happy.

Had the last two results been reversed maybe this post would never happened. The good feeling following beating Wolves has bought an extreme of emotion. One you always seem to get with Forest. The masses are never content; they are either euphoric or depressed. It’s completely bi-polar in its nature. We are on the edge of the playoffs. We are in within a good run of results from the higher echelons of the table. As I said quite recently, plenty of reasons to be cheerful.

So let’s not get depressed that we lost to a struggling team. Let’s not over analyse it. Players played badly, It happens. The overall curve of our season’s fortunes is an upward curve. We aren’t going backwards as a club. But a section of support behaves like each defeat we might have is a return to last season’s struggles.

New Year, New Start

So a fresh year and everything changes. A win and goals with it to boot. 2012 is already a revolution.

Considering that we had just lot, although perhaps unfairly to Cardiff, morale must have been down. So to come out and hit Ipswich early and take a two goal lead with two very well taken goals.

Tudgays first was as good a goal as I have seen him score. McCleary when he scored, well we have seen him building up to it. A few times lately he has put the ball on his inside and strikes the ball. A couple have been tipped around the post, so he finally got his shot that went in past the keeper. A great goal and we know he has it in his locker from last season against Leeds.

I am pleased for G-Mac in that regard that he is getting his chances he's always been a player I have liked. Admittedly frail in the defensive part of his game, his attacking exploits are usually explosive and exciting. And he is putting in a good shout for himself to be first team ahead of Anderson, who has been the exact opposite.

Of course we couldn’t keep a clean sheet, that would be too much to ask, and the penalty looked perhaps predictable but also that he went down easily. We had of course been riding our luck. Thomas especially with wonderful long range effort bouncing off the bar onto the line and back out. Literally a margin of error of an inch between wonder goal and something forgotten by next month.

At that point I was worried. It sounded ominous especially with our form, but lo and behold Marcus Tudgay saved the day with a good looping header past the keeper from a Reid cross and the 3 points at that stage were never in doubt.



2 days previously it had been different. We again played well but just couldn’t finish. Whether in those intervening days someone recalibrated the strikers to be able to find the target I don't know, but something changed for the better. Against Cardiff we huffed and we puffed but we were never going blow the house down.

Cardiff for their part didn’t have as many chances either, but when they did they were clearer cut and they looked more dangerous. That said Miller had a great chance before he did score somehow missing from right in front of goal close in, his shot was shanked wide.

So all in all frustrating in hindsight that we clearly can score, but that it all came rather late. Had we got a few goals in that run of games and got some confidence back we might have had a lot more points and been a lot higher up the league. But that’s football. If's and Buts.

Forest Last Gasp Comeback

At that point we had a team that withered and died in games (except against Leicester and we can frankly still thank Schmeichel for that) Now we have a team that does not want to lose. And will keep going. And then grab three points in injury time.

Ipswich had a team with a number of high paid players who have had success higher up the leagues. Chopra, Bowyer and Bullard are all well-known names, and with Stockdale (a keeper around the England squad) Jay Emmanuel Thomas (who was highly regarded at Arsenal) they aren’t short of players who look dangerous.

I just read a blog entry of an Ipswich site where they have suggested that these players are mere mercenaries and do not care, but Ipswich for periods looked handy. What they do probably lack is a certain amount of togetherness and spirit, as they bought in a large number of players.

That said, a number of our players are recent import, Greening, Reid, Cunningham all involved yesterday. But the core has been together for awhile and that breeds a certain amount of unity in the dressing room.

And that unity it seems to ebb and flow. Under Cotterill we have grasped it again, and use to go till the end. Under McClaren it seems that unity had the payers all against the manager, and they didn’t want to play for him, and that shows.

None of the goals yesterday were exactly classics. It was header central by and large, save for Findleys close range stab. Classically for Forest headers from set pieces were what we conceded. It sees to have been the same for all eternity. We never look comfortable.

But up the other end we grabbed headers too, and the points. Tudgay's winner seems a little lucky with how the ricochet landed exactly for him to no d home, but Lynch’s was a good strong header (and I for one am glad to see the lad started to get the plaudits he deserves.)

I’ll move on to the embarrassing banner later in another article, but of course Derby flew what can be described as an embarrassment over the City Ground for further entertainment.

All in all very good for the Feds to comeback. At 2-1 down I was more than a little concerned. But that’s because of the earlier start of the season when we would rollover. Now we don’t and it should breed confidence. Under Cotterill I doubt we would blow that lead against Derby. The players seem re-motiviated.

Onwards and upwards. Points wise we are as close to the playoffs as relegation. A good Decemeber and Christmas might even see us up in the playoff mix.