McLeish Gets First Win

Forest claimed their first win under Alex McLeish at the weekend with a victory that came via what has been an unusual forum. Set Pieces.

For so long now Forest haven’t scored from corners. In this game we scored two. Indeed even Peterboroughs goal came from corner, after defensive mishaps from Forest.

Forest were of course welcoming Karl Darlow to the first team. Although he has played before it was never in this context and relatively pressure free. Darlow more than rose to the occasion, although he didn’t have a lot to do, what he did he did competently. Even dashing out of the area to make clearances that perhaps Camp might not have. The goal from Posh cannot be pinned on Darlow and for that he can be pleased.

At their end both centre halves scored, and in the post match coverage this was mentioned from a Twitter use. It is rare but sweet when those two both score. Ok Halford goal was slightly contentious, I still can’t be sure due to where I sit if it went in, but the flag went straight up, and the protestations weren’t that strong.

The second goal could have no complaints at all in that regard. It was a powerful headed effort by Elliot Ward on his return. And a word for the central defence partnership who looked strong and solid. Ward made one challenge he missed that he probably should have been booked for, but at the end of the day sometimes you need those decisions to go for you.

As well as the central defenders, the full backs looked good. Harding attacked well, and Jara looked more than good enough on his debut. He attacked well, passed well and did hi defensive work. His first 3 /4 touches maybe went astray and one or two mutters were heard but he soon won people over.

The midfield was more of a diamond than the previous 1-3 formation. It still  looked narrow, but seemed to allow Majewksi to get forward

The one let down and slightly personally for me because I singled him out as a definite star when we signed him was Lansbury. This is a big chance with Reid out the side and I feel he didn’t really take his chance. Ok he got an assist with the first corner, but for me that was all he really did well. 

The attacks had a somewhat quiet game. Sharp had a good header well saved, but apart from that there were slim pickings for them, not really their fault as they rely on what’s set up for them,

Majewski was man of the match despite his two glaring misses. It is a shame that his performance couldn’t be finished off with a goal. Like Lansbury he got an assist from a corner.

Overall it was a pleasing for the Reds. Peterborough aren’t a good side but they have been on better form and it was an absolutely vital win to pick up especially considering the forthcoming Derby game.

Easter Weekend RoundUp

Well I always knew this weekend would shape our future either way of staying up going down. It certainly seems to have played out that way.

Saturday first of course and I was in positive mood for this game, though my colleague for the game (the forums Mr Geo Challenge) less o. Mind you still put money on a decent Forest win, and even money on a Blackstock hat trick.

Should have guessed early on this wasn't going to pan out that way. One of THOSE days where you dominate the game and fail to get anything. I am sure most of us are now aware that we lost to a penalty, and that penalty was almost pretty much all the City offered in terms of an attacking threat in the game. Journeyman Stead is a dangerous striker, and Wood who was also playing scored twice against us for Birmingham back when Schteve was in charge.

Anyway, how we can play the better football and still loose is an art Forest have mastered (and more recently my Arsenal team on Football Manager (31 shots to an opponent’s 2 and I lose?)Anyway FM asides aside, the states clearly show we were far far far better. 60% of possession. 19 shots to their 3, with 8 on target to their one. Yes their one, that sole goal was their only effort to be on target and even then Camp nearly saved it.

And there we go, Camp. Whose fault it was. He perhaps should have turned the cross that hit the bar in the first place over the bar. Then when he started chasing after it he lunged feet first at Jon Stead. Now it was the most stonewall penalty you will care to see. There were no doubts about it. Camp, as I say got his hands to the penalty but not enough to stop it going past him.



We had a number of good efforts but as seems all too often we met a keeper on inspired form who saved everything we chucked at him. The best was turning over a Lynch header, but also saved well from Tudgay, Chambers and a Reid free kick.

A mention about those corners. We twice had corner routines ruled as offside. Now the ball wasn't being played forward when touched the other second man so why was it offside? My gripe is we tried it a second time when we knew the linesman didn’t like this routine. A minor gripe. The referee also tended to be inconsistent. Not playing advantages when he should, very annoying, and ordering Blackstock after treatment, despite not having any treatment.

All in all, very frustrating. Why though some booed at full time. We dominated that game. We were the better team. People were calling for changes, but the thing was we were playing better and playing the better stuff, so shy change that? People often seem to want to change for change sakes.

With a quick turnaround it helped us to try and get this out of our system. We knew we played well, so do the same again and it should all come good. And it did. Again we started brightly and dominated playing the betters stuff. But as always with Forest this merely serves to make me more nervous, playing well but not leading, as all too often this season the goals gone the other way and counted against us.



Dexter though has a couple of times managed to get the goal which rests the nerves. And yesterday was no different. McCleary's run and cross and a good touch from Dexter and a good finish off the bar to see us in front.

It wasn't so much a case of holding on that time as it could have been that we would have started going for a second until he red card. Now Radio Nottingham immediately claimed it was never a Red ( I Missed the game due to work commitments) having watched it again on TV from that position it certainly looks like potentially a two footed lunge. However the club said they are appealing and the ref immediately said he may well look at it so let’s see.

Should we be missing G-Mac in the next few games it may well be somewhat a problem missing our most influential player who holds all the creative flair in the squad right now. That said McGugan looked bright again and might be able to be implemented on the right wing to be able to assist the teaming that role.

We should be safe. There are enough points and matches for it to be caught, but the likelihoods are slimmer and slimmer. We are creeping back up to the clubs like Barnsley and Peterborough and now above Millwall for now. Things look rosier. For us to be relegated now would turn quite amazing turns of events.

For now I remain cautious and don’t mean to celebrate survival yet. Let’s hope that’s coming up in the next few games.

Can't Score, Won't Score.

2 days ago we lost to Peterborough. If we were still playing now, I bet we would still be losing to Peterborough. And that makes 6 games without scoring, which is pitiful in anyone’s language.

The fact we had a lionshare of possession created more opportunities and generally looked better, all save for in front of goal is one thing. The fact without possession of the ball we are clueless is another. The stats show 50-50% share of the ball. A lot of Peterborough’s time was spent passing the ball round the back once ahead content that we'd probably be incapable of breaking them down.

And shock horror, but an Ex Forest player popped up with the goal, and another, a striker no less, put in a good showing (George Boyd and Emile Sinclair respectively)It's not just rubbing salt into wounds, but open up new wounds to pour industrial strength salt into.

There were good efforts by Forest, McCleary and McGugan forcing the keeper to make saves before the Posh scored. That said, these were saves you'd expect any keeper of any calibre to save with a fair amount of comfort.

It wasn't really a surprise to see Peterborough lead, or to see Forest floundering to the usual type of changes we make to bring on fresh legs to do no more than they replaced. The team lacks leadership on the field. No-one is urging them on in the way that Paul McKenna the formally much maligned McKenna used.

Too many players go missing and the structure, though a classical shape just seems wrong, players are not doing what they should. McGugan is static and waiting for the ball rather than looking for It., Majewski looks lost and goes missing for huge periods of time. Our main creative outlet for two home games has been Garath McCleary running at wingers. McCleary will try all day but his crossing is not always the best.

Up front, they often seem remote. At times not getting into the box. When they do have a chance to that is. Much of the time the ball being tossed up to the strikers to merely is brought back towards our net again when a hoof fails.

Where we went wrong on Saturday was Moussi not being able to play centre back. He did well considering, but he had a lapse of concentration, couldn't run back toward goal as well as look about him where danger was and before we knew it, Boyd had time to curl what was a lovely strike home. Moussi, as I say did try, but he just looses concentration too much, as do half the rest. Greening on too many occasions left a ball too short, Cunningham at times looks confused as to what to do, Reid when he comes in knows what he wants to do, but is too unfit to do it half the time.

All in all, it's almost there. Almost isn't good enough. Every position seems to be running at 50% of where it was last year in terms of ability, yet most players are the same as took us to the brink of the Premiership.

I saw the first few signs around me of people being very disgruntled with Cotterill too. His post match interview were he sounded as perplexed as anyone and had no answers won't have helped either.


I had this discussion at work the other day before the Xmas break. Of the team that was doing badly, the majority were players who played in the glory games, against West Brom, against Derby. How long ago those days now seem.