Did Colin want the Cup?

By: Stuart | December 12th, 2007

Rumours have been circulating on messageboards that Forest boss Colin Calderwood played a weakened team against Luton last night because he didn’t want the FA Cup to interfere with his promotion plans.

Wingers Kris Commons and Arron Davies were left on the bench for the game and Forest clearly lacked pace and width. Calvin Andrew scored the only goal of the game to give Luton their second win over Forest in a matter of weeks at Kenilworth Road. The defeat means that Forest won’t be hosting Liverpool in a glamourous third round tie next month. It would have been the first time the two clubs have met in the competition since the rearranged semi-final of 1989, following the Hillsborough disaster.

Forest reached the fourth round of the FA Cup last season after comfortably beating Premiership strugglers Charlton Athletic at the City Ground, only then to be swept aside by eventual winners Chelsea. However, the club’s promotion campaign disintegrated and they lsot out in the play-offs to Yeovil.

Calderwood is clearly not interested in cups this year. I’m not claiming that he deliberately lost matches, just that he picked weaker teams to avoid injury to his better players. Forest also did well in the Paint Trophy last season but this time round were knocked out early on by Peterborough. Clearly the manager is more focussed on the league now, as he knows that the club and the fans expect nothing less than promotion, and if he fails he will lose his job.

As much as I would have loved to have seen Liverpool come to the City Ground, more than anything I want us to be playing them in the Premiership, so promotion is priority. We picked up too many injuries last season and the squad simply isn’t deep enough to risk losing more this time round.

Category: matches, misc

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