Season round-up
By: Tim |
2 Comments
First of all, folks, an apology. I haven’t written anything about the mighty Reds in a long old time, in fairness I have a legitimate excuse as my PC has been out of action for a while with a virus. That and I’ve been on holiday. Anyway, better late than never, and despite all the recent transfer activity, along with the fact that pre-season is already over, I bring you the season round-up…
We may as well get these out of the way first … season lows. Obviously these are open to debate, but personally I think the Boxing Day loss to Doncaster has to be vying for top spot. At the time Doncaster hadn’t scored more than once in any game, and were rooted to the bottom of the table on eighteen points. The fact that this 4-2 defeat, at the City Ground no less, gave Doncaster a platform to gain twenty-five points from their next ten games, and eventually finish above us in fourteenth place, makes the defeat even harder to bear.
Still, the upside was that it finally gave the Board the impetus to hand Calderwood his P45 and show him the door marked ‘do one’. So, a low point cushioned by an eventual high point – in the appointment of Billy Davies that is. It’s safe to say that he wasn’t the popular choice, but he’s definitely won a few critics round with his straight talking and no-nonsense approach. Every fan is looking forward to next Saturday’s game at Reading, after a full pre-season under Billy, which saw some decent results, I think it’s safe to say that we’re expecting a much stronger showing this season.
Back to low points though, obviously the two defeats to Derby have to enter the competition, and the two hammerings by Wolves and Burnley as well. I think the utter capitulation to Burnley was probably the worst defeat of the season, however, not least because of the manner of the goals, but the fact that Burnley, as Peter Taylor might have put it, weren’t even playing that well. It’s perhaps not a low point, but Andrew ‘Andy’ Cole’s failure to make an impression was disappointing too.
To season highs then, obviously staying up was the highest priority for last year, we can be justifiably proud of achieving it too, given the position we were in around Christmas time. Beating Manchester City 3-0 at Eastlands was priceless, as was Joe Garner’s goal against Southampton at St Mary’s (his goal against them at the City Ground wasn’t bad either – shades of Fernando Torres anyone?).
Chris Cohen was continually energetic, and well worth his player of the season award, and Wes Morgan stepped up his game too. Earnshaw has got to get a mention, as last season’s top scorer with twelve league goals (seventeen in total), it’s a shame he was injured for half the season really.
Still, we’ve got plenty of firepower in reserve this year, considering how active we’ve been in the transfer market over the past few months. With that in mind, watch out for the pre-season round-up…
Category: Billy’s so high right now…
By: Tim | 1 Comment
After guiding the mighty Reds to survival this season, thanks to a right royal result on Monday night, Billy Davies has claimed that this is his ‘best high’ in management: “I’ve had many highs in the last few years but this high – without doubt – is the best to date. It’s an outstanding achievement, and everyone should be proud, but it was far too close a call for a club this size”.
You’re not wrong, Billy, you’re not wrong. I’ve been thinking recently, particularly during the Coventry match (which would have been a Premiership tie a decade ago), about how we got ourselves in to this mess. Not this season in particular, but our gradual decline over the past decade or so.
Most Forest fans would probably point to the careless over spending of David Platt, and the succession of bad managers we had after he hotfooted it to the England Under 21s. I’m not blaming it all on mismanagement of course, laying it all at the managers door is an easy option, and with the amount of teams like Charlton, Southampton and (presumably) Norwich heading to League One, surely they can’t all have been the victim of managerial blunders?
I’m inclined to believe it’s a case of provincial clubs over-reaching, then finding themselves increasingly out of their depth in a sport dominated by money, foreign investors and the ‘new Premiership order’. Coupled with bad choices from your manager and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
Southampton got in over their heads due to St Mary’s stadium; the banks called time on their loans and asked for them to be refinanced before they would agree to extend their overdraft. When the Saints couldn’t find the investment, and Barclays decided to foreclose, Southampton Leisure Holdings were forced in to administration. We all know what happened next, with the 10-point deduction saga, but the worrying thing is that in the current economic climate this situation could easily be repeated.
In a way Forest are lucky to have a chairman who is happy to personally bankroll the club, if we were in a similar level of debt (£43.8 million in 2008) to a bank, and they called time on our overdraft, we’d have to plead for investment too. Speaking of which, the Mirror has reported that Doughty will provide Billy Davies with a £20 million transfer kitty, allowing him to put bids in for the likes of Blackstock, Gunter, Camp and Ched Evans. Not too sure what to make of this rumour, given how much he has already put in to the club he might think twice about investing such a large amount.
Still, it’s nice to mentally spend that much, and the messageboards are already awash with talk of pre-season signings and possible formations, but, as we prepare for the final game against Southampton, and the inevitable pitch invasion, I’d encourage you to spare a thought for the Saints fans. The green shoots of recovery might be sprouting at the City Ground, but it’s not so long ago since we were first staring down the barrel of League One football too.
Perchigol strikes during momentous week for Forest
By: Tim | 5 Comments
What a week for Forest fans, probably the most important week of the season so far, and I’m pleased to say that most of it went our way.
It all started before last Saturday’s match against Coventry when Davies asked the Forest faithful to make the City Ground ‘like a cauldron’. We did register our second highest attendance of the season (27,856), which is pleasing to see, but judging by the sounds coming from the stands I’d say it was more like ‘squeaky bum time’ than a cauldron. The first half was tense; you could see that the players were nervous with plenty of over hit passes and free-kicks going astray.
Still, Chambers managed to hit the bar in the first period, and although Coventry had a few corners and free-kicks they never really looked like scoring. McCleary came on for Anderson after the break, and the super-sub (with 24 appearances) made an immediate difference, we started attacking Coventry at pace and within a minute Blackstock had laid off a great ball to Perch, the captain’s placed shot was his third goal of the season. After that it was a case of hanging on, Isaiah Osbourne was a rock in midfield for us, his headed clearances and assured passing got us out of trouble a few times, and Gunter is starting to look at ease too, despite shifting wings after being asked to play right back for the day.
You can watch the highlights here, in truth it was a poor match really, with two shots on target each, but boy was it a valuable three points. Southampton lost 2-0 to Sheffield Wednesday, so we went five points clear of them, although they are definitely relegated after the Football League finally imposed the 10-point deduction yesterday.
Lord Mawhinney, the Football League chairman, said they had ‘no choice’ but to impose the penalty after forensic accountants advised that the holding company, the stadium company and the club are ‘inextricably linked as one economic entity’. The Saints are going to appeal, on the grounds that the Football League have ‘stretched the rules to suit their purpose when the club isn’t in breach’, but the situation seems bleak for them now – if they somehow manage to stay up this season then the points deduction will apply this season, meaning they will be relegated anyway, but if they are relegated ‘naturally’ then the deduction will apply next season.
They’ve got Burnley at home tomorrow, the Clarets still have something to play for too, so it could be a close game, but you’d expect an away win there. It’s a decisive weekend – Norwich, who lost the East Anglian derby last Sunday, play Reading at home on Monday, if they lose and we manage to get a draw or a win against Blackpool tomorrow (in the early game), then we’re safe. Barnsley, who could only manage a draw against Coventry in their game in hand, play Wolves tomorrow, which could be an interesting one too, given that the Wanderers are already promoted.
The good news is that we’ve got both Earnshaw and Tyson back for tomorrow’s trip to Bloomfield Road, Joel Lynch could be back in the side too, after missing two games due to personal problems. As Billy says, it’s in our hands, we can’t rely on anyone else doing us a favour, but maybe, if results go our way, we can all rest a little easier on Monday night.
Sheffield United 0 Forest 0 – Wilson sees red in an otherwise impressive display
By: Tim | Add Comments
Considering the Blades were the form team in the Championship going in to yesterday’s game, having won their last five matches, and that we played with 10 men for seventy-five minutes, I think this was an impressive display by the Reds.
Breckin marshalled the backline very well after Wilson’s straight red card for head butting Greg Halford (looking at the incident again he did push his head towards him, Halford made the most out of it though), strange as it may sound his sending off galvanised the team, in terms of defending anyway. It limited our attacking options of course, a fact that Davies acknowledged when he took Blackstock and Garner off relatively early, but the point was hard-earned, helped along by the Blades’s sketchy and hurried attacking play. Highlights are available here.
Davies was presumably so exhausted by the days events that he sent Ned Kelly out to do the post-match interview: “You have to work harder than the opposition, to get in their faces and close the ball down; to stop crosses and shots. Kelvin going off was a big loss for us, but it shows the character of everyone else that they were able to get him out of a mess by fighting for that result. Now we have to concentrate on making sure we do the right things against Coventry”.
Kelly is right, it was a good result, although it was slightly softened by the fact that Norwich won at home to Watford. Of all their remaining games that was the one I had earmarked for a Norwich win, we’re now level on points with both Barnsley and Norwich but remain in the relegation zone due to our poor goal difference. On paper, even though Barnsley have a game in hand, you’d have to say that they have the toughest run-in – their one remaining home game is against Wolves, although they may have already secured automatic promotion by then and could be tempted to field a weaker side.
Norwich have got Ipswich and Reading coming up, and end their campaign against Charlton at the Valley. Norwich seem to be battling as hard as we are, my instinct says they’ll do enough to stay up, but hey, as Greavsie famously said, it’s a funny old game.
As Kelly said, though, we need to concentrate on our games – we’ve got Coventry at home this Saturday, no doubt Wilson will be absent due to suspension, although if Breckin can repeat yesterday’s performance we shouldn’t miss him too much. Moussi was rested against the Blades, but should be make it back, likewise for Joel Lynch. Earnshaw and Turner are battling to be fit, and could be back before the end of the season, although they won’t make it back for this match. With Garner and Blackstock up front I’m sure we’ve got goals, however, and they always come in handy when you’re trying to win games.
Forest 3 Bristol City 2 – Blackstock on target as Robins reliant on Turner errors
By: Tim | Add Comments
At the start of the season you may remember me saying ‘us Forest fans could be in for a few high scoring games’, well, with the exception of a few tonkings, and the odd match here or there, its not really turned out that way for us. The Bristol match can join the ranks of the ‘odd match here or there’, though, as this turned out to be an exciting and free-flowing game with chances, and goals, at both ends.
When I say exciting obviously I mean for the neutral, for the Forest fans this was nail biting, brown trousers time – we came back from a goal behind, twice, and I had the nervy feeling that Norwich were going to get something from playing away at Swansea. Southampton had already lost to Wolves the night before, too, so there was added pressure as we knew that a good result here could see us move away from them, and possibly the relegation zone as well.
Forest didn’t start very well, on loan keeper Iain Turner scuffed a cross in to the path of Sproule early on, he was presented with an open goal and duly made it 1 nil. We kept pressing though, and Earnshaw made it one each just over fifteen minutes later after a hopeful ball in to the box from Blackstock fell kindly to him, he slotted home from just outside the six yard box.
There was an air of inevitability about City’s second goal, not in terms of Turner’s poor play (who is now ruled out for the rest of the season by the way) but the fact that it was a former Forest target, Dele Adebola, who put the visitors ahead. A seemingly nothing ball forward was met by the head of Adebola, who was just inside the box, and when Turner raced off his line, completely unnecessarily, it allowed Adebola’s looping header to go over him and in to the net.
The outlook was bleak at this point, but four minutes later the game changed completely when City had a man sent off for a second bookable offence – the resulting free-kick was floated in by McGugan and met by Garner, who levelled the scores at 2-2. It’s a shame that Garner hasn’t got more starts really, he has got a good goal scoring record against his appearances – my guess is that Davies is going for experience over youth, although some fans think the pair have fallen out. We pushed everything forward to get the three points after his goal, when, just in to injury time, Blackstock popped up with a vital goal that sealed the three points.
After some head tennis in and around the area, the ball eventually dropped for him to volley it from ten yards out, it went low to the keepers left and in to the net. In truth it could have been more in the later stages, were it not for some great keeping by Basso, but it didn’t really matter – we got the three points and climbed out of the relegation zone after Swansea did us a favour by beating Norwich. Highlights are available here.
Davies was full of praise for Blackstock after the match: “He led the line brilliantly. You need someone like that up front and he was a big asset to us holding the ball up. His flick-ons were invaluable and he showed great technique for his goal”. He is definitely a great addition to the team, even more so when you consider that Earnshaw is now out for the rest of the season due to a knee injury. It really makes you wonder why QPR allowed him to leave – it’s reported that Paulo Sousa lost his job there recently for speaking out about it, although the official line was that he divulged ‘confidential and sensitive information’.
Anyway, we’ve got Sheffield United away today, the trickiest tie of our run-in by far. United are the form team in the Championship at the moment, they’ve won their last five matches and haven’t lost since the Sheffield derby in early February – if we can get a result at Bramhall Lane it’ll go a long way to making us safe.
Davies vs. Davey in Barnsley barney, and wotte is going on at St Mary’s?
By: Tim | Add Comments
It has been a strange old week for the Reds so far, and we’ve not even been involved in some of it. Firstly, Saturday’s match against Barnsley was given an almost derby-esque feel to it due to the furore over ticket pricing by the hosts (that saw the away fans being charged nineteen quid as opposed to a fiver) as well as a bizarre war of words between Davies and Davey.
The Evening Post claim that a creative, inaccurate spin on Billy’s pre-match comments led Davey to state that “what he said bordered on bringing the game into disrepute”. Davies responded with this: “I was asked a question about the type of people coming to this football club and I said it’s the likes of Chris Lucketti and Chris Morgan – their type of mentality and experience – that you need at this level. For anybody to make a suggestion I was referring to anything else is the most small-minded thing I’ve ever seen in my life and I can’t believe it. I can’t believe for one second that somebody would suggest I was trying to stoke the flames”.
It was naïve to mention Chris Morgan’s name when playing Barnsley, given what happened earlier in the season, but still, Davey and the Barnsley players were clearly rattled by a seemingly innocent comment. Davey went on to claim that “he’s asked his players to emulate a player that has come here and put one of my players in hospital. He’s done it to try and intimidate the fans, the whole atmosphere, but for me it’s very unprofessional for a manager to do something like that”.
The spat may or may not have its roots in that fact that Davey lost his job as youth-team coach at Preston, while Davies was in charge there, but what is for sure is that we owe our point in Saturday’s 1-1 draw to a tame penalty from Jamal Campbell-Ryce, and the endeavour of Earnshaw, who notched his tenth league goal of the season in the 68th minute. We definitely deserved the point, although Davies thinks we should have got all three: “Only one team should have won the game. I was very proud of the players and our magnificent fans”. Watch the highlights here.
The other big story this week is Southampton going in to administration, or should I say Southampton Leisure Holdings going in to administration, their parent company. There is a possibility that the club could avoid a 10 point deduction via a loophole in the rules, due to their parent company going in to administration and not the club itself, although the Football League ordered an independent inquiry in to the club’s accounts today.
If they are to avoid the penalty it sets a very dangerous precedent, considering what happened to Luton and Leeds, although Southampton are, perhaps obviously, claiming they should avoid it. My guess is that they will be docked points, when is the key question for me though – last week the Guardian reported that it won’t apply until next season, meaning it won’t affect the relegation battle one jot, although some fans are talking about them ‘taking the hit’ this season. It’s a big week for the Saints on the pitch, too, they’ve got Watford tonight and play Wolves away on Good Friday – this is a Wolves side who will surely be looking to clock up some more points after last night’s result against Birmingham.
Lastly, Tyson and McGugan both took knocks on Saturday, although neither are thought to be serious and they should be back for this Saturday’s match against Bristol City. We’ll be without McSheffrey, who has gone back to Birmingham now, although with so many loan players in the first team it was difficult to see how he’d fit in anyway.
Oh, and QPR boss Paulo Sousa claims he wasn’t informed that Dexter Blackstock had been allowed to leave the club to join us on loan. It does seem an odd decision, given that he is QPR’s leading scorer, and they’re now struggling for fit strikers, but I’m not arguing, Blackstock played well on Saturday and should make a difference to the relegation battle. He came in at number 33 in a recent Four Four Two poll of the Top 50 Football League Players too, Chris Cohen deservedly made it in there at 18 as well. Cohen gets my vote for player of season to be honest, it’s either him or Wes Morgan, and I didn’t think I’d be saying that at the start of the season.
Wolves, Blackstock and the Championship run-in
By: Tim | 2 Comments
Although last weekend’s result against Wolves did nothing to help us out, points-wise that is, we avoided embarrassment at the very least, considering the score line in this fixture at Molineux, and the result was softened by the fact that all of the teams around us could only manage draws, too.
Davies claimed that the match had ‘0-0 written all over it’, he’s not wrong either, were it not for Michael Kightly’s controlled low shot in the 75th minute, one of only 3 shots the league leaders had on target, it probably would have ended that way. Obviously Wolves, and their numerous travelling supporters, will be happy with this, one of the signs of a Championship winning side is the ability to grind out results after all, but in truth it was a poor match. You can watch the highlights here.
For Forest fans the game was a chance to see on loan goalkeeper Iain Turner in action, he had a solid match but didn’t really have too much to do, I think we’re all hoping that his run of 15 games on loan without defeat (at Sheffield Wednesday and Palace) can be extended to our run-in though.
We’ve recently signed another player on loan, after much speculation (which includes the fact that he didn’t want to come to Forest) QPR’s Dexter Blackstock put pen to paper on Thursday. Rumour has it that we’ve agreed an undisclosed fee for Blackstock, should we stay up, which I’m quite pleased about. He has scored twelve times for QPR this season, and has been on the verge of the England Under 21 setup for a while now. At six foot two he’s a good partner for Earnie, too, although I hope this doesn’t lead to the Reds playing route one football.
Blackstock’s signing takes our loan total to seven players, under the rules we’re only allowed to play five loanee’s though, so my guess is that Osbourne and McSheffrey will miss out against Barnsley next Saturday, purely because they’re not fit. This is the Barnsley match where Forest fans who travelled to Burnley will get half-price tickets, by way of apology, although the normal price is £19 when Barnsley fans are being charged a mere £5.
Speaking of the England Under 21s, too, McGugan has failed to secure a place in the side for the international friendly matches this week. Pearce claimed “it would have been nice to have had a Forest player in the squad, and we have been keeping an eye on Lewis McGugan, but at the moment we felt he was not quite ready”. McGugan did start to play well, shortly after the call-up rumour first broke, but was then dropped by Davies for his ‘off the field discipline’ (read dietary habits). No doubt this didn’t help his cause.
To the run-in, then, where it looks like none of the bottom six have it any easier than the rest – most sides have a got a mixture of tough top-ten teams and relegation six-pointers. From Barnsley to Charlton the run-ins look like this:
Barnsley – 44pts: Forest (h), Sheff Utd (a), Watford (a), Swansea (h), Reading (a), Coventry (a), Wolves (h), Plymouth (a).
Norwich – 43pts: Sheff Weds (h), Swansea (a), Watford (h), Ipswich (a), Reading (h), Charlton (a).
Plymouth – 43pts: Blackpool (a), Coventry (h), Birmingham (a), Doncaster (h), QPR (a), Barnsley (h).
Forest – 41pts: Barnsley (a), Bristol City (h), Sheff Utd (a), Coventry (h), Blackpool (a), Southampton (h).
Southampton – 40pts: Charlton (h), Watford (a), Wolves (a), Crystal Palace (h), Sheff Weds (a), Burnley (h), Forest (a).
Charlton – 29pts: Southampton (a), Birmingham (h), Coventry (a), Blackpool (h), Cardiff (h), Derby (a), Norwich (h).
Barnsley have got more games left to play than anyone else, although they’re all quite tough and their situation could get worse if we manage to beat them next weekend. Norwich and Plymouth have a few tricky ties left to play, I’d say Norwich have the toughest run-in of the lot, it includes a local derby and only two teams from the bottom half of the table.
Southampton have Wolves and Burnley to play, although they could pick up points against Watford and Charlton, who look effectively relegated – if they fail to pick up any points over the next few games they could be going in to the final weeks already faced with the prospect of League One football next season. Our run-in doesn’t look too bad, Sheffield United and Bristol City notwithstanding, although we need to win our relegation six-pointers to have any hope of staying up.
Interestingly it looks like there could be a lot of tense matches on the final day, with all of the current bottom six scheduled to face each other. Of course, Charlton could already be relegated by that time, potentially making things easier for Norwich. Clearly this is all speculation though, it’s a strange old league this year, on their day most teams are capable of beating each other, with a few exceptions.
Davies has appealed for ‘calm heads’, whilst also stating the obvious: “The most important objective is to make sure we get to the end of the season with the required number of points we need to keep us up. But it is important that we stay calm and focused. This stage of the season is always like this, whether you are chasing promotion or fighting relegation. I think the performances in four of our last six matches have been positive – very positive. That is why I feel confident about the future”. I wish I had Billy’s confidence, a good result against Barnsley would go a long way to restoring it.
Burnley 5 Forest 0 – Davies slams ‘disgraceful’ Reds
By: Tim | Add Comments
In my last post, shortly after the Swansea game, I made the following two statements: ‘the acid test will be against Watford’ and ‘if we turn in performances like this every week, but take our chances instead, we should have no problem staying up’. That run of seven points from nine has a strange distant feel to it now, as if it is some kind of phantom, a bizarre and misleading aberration sandwiched in between a run of defeats that get progressively more and more embarrassing for the practising Forest fan.
Hats off to Burnley and Owen Coyle first of all, the Clarets are a tidy side that play neat football, they completely out-played us and thoroughly deserved this win. Robbie Blake, a former Forest loanee (way back in 2000), kicked off the rout in the 19th minute with a free-kick that Paul Smith blundered in to the net. Our travelling fans got on Smudge’s back after that, and, to be fair, he should have done better, but to ruin our only keeper’s confidence doesn’t make much sense to me when we’re in our position. We went in to the break 2 nil down, after Blake had set up Wade Elliott for the second, and Smudge was roundly booed by our support.
Burnley’s players must have sensed that his confidence was low as their last two goals came from shots outside the box, either that or they’re simply a really confident attacking team – they have had the most shots on goal in this league too. Smudge does have his weak points, namely his distribution and command of the area, but I don’t think he was entirely to blame for the score line – our defending was woeful at times, particularly by Luke Chambers. My guess is that when Lynch returns at left-back, Chris Gunter will switch to right-back and Chambers will be dropped. We missed Wilson though too, his replacement (Perch) didn’t quite cut it at times, particularly his ‘clearance’ that was effectively a pass to Burnley for their fifth goal.
Understandably Davies wasn’t happy with our performance: “The first thing we should be doing is apologising to our travelling fans. We showed a lack of desire and commitment and I am very disappointed. You cannot work on individual errors or having a will to win and we have players who lack a will to win”.
In an interview with Radio Nottingham, Davies also stated that he had dropped McGugan for his ‘off the field discipline’ – when the interviewer pressed him further on the subject he said it wasn’t just McGugan, there are one or two others, and it is about their ‘style of life’, their eating habits and preparation. Davies is obviously a strict disciplinarian, but at times like this players like McGugan can make a real difference, as shown in the recent game at Reading and the draw with Swansea.
Billy went on to state that: “The fans have seen in these two games (Watford and Burnley) that strength of character has been missing, the willingness to go and play a certain game is not there. Again, that tells you the type of group we’ve got here”. Fair enough, he wants to make a point, I’m just not convinced this is the right time to do that – he could end up severely damaging morale in the team and creating an ‘us and them’ situation.
Hopefully we should get our first choice defence back in time for next week’s game against Wolves at the City Ground. It looks like Isaiah Osbourne will definitely be ruled out for this match though, he picked up a groin injury yesterday – based on Tyson’s recovery time he could out for 2 weeks at least, although we should know more this week. We’ve got seven games to go now, I’m clinging on to the hope that we can scrape enough points for survival by winning our remaining relegation six-pointers; avoiding further embarrassment against Wolves would be nice too.
Forest 1 Swansea 1 – Swans held at Forest
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Just over a week ago, if someone had said to me “you’re going to get seven points out of nine against Reading, Preston and Swansea”, I probably would have wheeled out the catchphrase that Andy Millman loathed so much in Extras – “are you having a laugh?”. The fact that we probably should have got all nine, given the performance against Swansea on Saturday, makes it all the more unbelievable.
Confidence has clearly been restored to the side after beating the Lilywhites midweek though – we started strongly against Swansea and could have gone 1 nil up early on after Earnie missed from close range. I’ve got a lot of time for the Jacks, they’re comfortable in possession and like to stroke the ball around, their first chance came from the creative Joe Allen who fired wide from 30 yards out. The first half was mostly about us, though, with Osbourne clipping the bar (following a neat one two with the Moose) and debutant loanee McSheffrey firing wide after some good work by Lynch.
We started the second half much the same, Cohen had an early shot saved by De Vries, and we continued to hold the Swans back. Sadly, against the run of play, the good work looked to have been in vain when some sloppy defending led to an unmarked Bauza chipping Smudge, who came off his line, to find the similarly unmarked Jason Scotland. His goal was a simple tap-in, it was doubly disappointing because Wilson had kept the Swans’s top scorer in his pocket up until that point, and we’d restricted them to counter attacks too.
To our credit we didn’t let it get the better of us. Shortly after coming on in place of McSheffrey, McGugan had a tame crack at goal saved when he probably should have played Earnie in. He made amends by scoring the equaliser, though, after a great run and cross by Lynch, Lewis kept his cool to head home from six yards out. There were a couple of chances either way after that, notably for Earnie and Jordi Gomez, but neither side could break the other down.
I’ve still got a lot of respect for the way Swansea play, and Roberto Martinez is clearly an astute manager, but I was slightly underwhelmed by their performance. We should have won this really, having players like McSheffrey, Osbourne and Moussi at full fitness may have made the difference. Still, every point is valuable and it’s pleasing to see that Wilson has regained some confidence – Lynch has started to turn in some fine performances too. Watch the highlights here.
The acid test will be against Watford at Vicarage Road tomorrow night, in the first of four remaining relegation six pointers. Big Wes will return to the side, and Nathan Tyson is a possibility too, although Paul Anderson has reportedly got an ankle injury, so he may miss out. Given the other results in the league it’s vital that we take some points from this game – the bottom half of the Championship is packed tighter than a cling film codpiece, so a convincing string of wins, a la Doncaster, could see us sitting fairly comfortably come May.
One thing to worry about is the amount of games in hand sides like Barnsley and Watford have (3 and 2 respectively), and maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but it’s not unthinkable that we could be safe before May, given our results this past week and the topsy-turvy nature of the Championship. Put it one way, if we turn in performances like this every week, but take our chances instead, we should have no problem staying up.
Tags: Doncaster Rovers, Gary McSheffrey, Guy Moussi, Isaiah Osbourne, Jason Scotland, Joel Lynch, Jordi Gomez, Kelvin Wilson, lewis mcgugan, matches, misc, nathan tyson, news, nottingham forest, Paul Anderson, paul smith, Preston North End, robert earnshaw, Roberto Martinez, Swansea City, Uncategorized, wes morganReading 0 Forest 1 – Reds win Royal rumble
By: Tim | Add Comments
This was never going to be a game for purists. Reading had failed to score in their past three games, including going down 2-0 at home to Bristol City, and the less said about Forest’s recent run of form the better. When you’re in our position, though, who really cares about the purity of football? Make no mistake, this could be a vital three points – mostly because the teams around us, with the exception of Norwich, all had good results too.
After surviving a first half onslaught at the Madejski, that included Jimmy Kebe missing a sitter, and Kevin Doyle having a goal ruled out for offside, the second half turned in our favour. Cohen and McGugan were getting some luck by running at defenders, and so came the game’s only goal when McGugan outmuscled Marek Matejovsky and ran diagonally towards the box just after the hour mark, he turned another defender inside before coolly slotting a low shot past the keeper.
McGugan has been hit and miss this season, but when he turns it on there is no doubt he is a cracking player. Rumour has it that he will get an England Under-21 call up later this month when England entertain France at the City Ground, I’m hoping this will spark a run a good form from him, if only to help us out with the run-in. A more cynical fan on the messageboards suggested he could get a call-up to help sell more tickets for the game, my guess is that Psycho would be happy to play a Forest lad either way.
Anyway, the return of Moussi seemed to allow him some freedom in this match, so we can only hope he comes good for us in the remaining games. As the second half progressed we grew more confident, and Reading less so, as we managed to hold on for a win in spite of an agonising 5 minutes of stoppage time due to the multi-ball time wasting. Watch the highlights here.
There are a few negatives from this match though, Nathan Tyson can now be added to the injury list after he hobbled off with a groin strain, and Big Wes picked up another yellow card, meaning he’ll miss our next match due to suspension. The good news is that Tyson should only be out for a week, but he will miss tomorrow night’s match against Preston at the City Ground, and possibly Saturday’s game against Swansea. With Garner reportedly out with a shoulder injury, and Newbold out too, things are looking pretty bleak up front. It comes to something when you’re even considering Newbold anyway.
Davies is still holding out on loan-signing a striker, and we’ve actually had some success in the market today after we managed to sign Villa’s Isaiah Osbourne for the rest of the season. Davies describes him as a modern holding midfielder who is capable of playing box-to-box, he talks the talk and could come straight in to the side tomorrow night, allowing us to rest the returning Moussi in a straight swap. Something to cheer about at last, then, three points against Preston wouldn’t go amiss either.
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