Everything’s gone green

By: Tim | August 28th, 2008

Is CC green with envy? In tribute to Brian Clough, both Forest and Sunderland supporters were urged to wear the colour green to last night’s second round Carling Cup tie at the City Ground. What I’d like to know is quite simple, why?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for remembering what the great man did with Forest, back then it was remarkable, by today’s standards it is unthinkable. However, I can’t help wondering what he would have made of the board’s decision to dedicate this match to him - a second round League Cup match with just over 9,000 people in attendance.

Cloughie died just under four years ago, on September 20th 2004, so it’s not like the late-August date is that significant. Clough was born in Middlesbrough, too, where he spent the majority of his playing career - appearing 222 times and scoring 207 goals - before moving to Sunderland. He made 74 appearances for the Black Cats, scoring an impressive 63 goals, but was forced to retire early due a knee injury he sustained during a game on Boxing Day, 1962.

To be honest with you, I wasn’t at last night’s game, so I can only judge from the pictures and reports in the media, but it doesn’t seem like that many people actually turned up in green. The pictures from the away end show no green at all, just pot-bellied Mackems in the obligatory home shirt, and none of the post-match media reports mention the tribute at all. Would it not have made more sense to try and organise a charity match, played closer to the anniversary of his death, and against Middlesbrough instead?

The whole tribute seems a bit farcical to me, and forced too. Perhaps we should just let people carry out their own tribute when the statue of Cloughie is unveiled later this year. Anyway, rant over. By all accounts we gave Sunderland a good run for their money, Earnshaw scored on the hour from a free kick that left Craig Gordon stranded, and we led the game 1-0 right up until the last 5 minutes. Unfortunately Sunderland had enough quality to force the match into extra time, and eventually won it through David Healy’s goal in the 93rd minute.

After the match Keane had this to say of his former club: ‘I am sure their goal will be to maintain their status in the Championship, and I can’t see any problems for them on that front, I thought that in pre-season. They have some big strong boys, they have lots of desire, and they play football the way it should be. They could be dark horses for promotion, because they do play that standard of football’.

Instinct suggests that he is just being polite, but the tide is slowly turning at Forest. There is a lot more positivity on the blogs these days, especially towards Calderwood, and we’re actually performing quite well up front. With both Garner and Anderson yet to feature in attack, and Cole and Tyson on the verge of returning, who knows, maybe we are dark horses for promotion? Stranger things have happened; I never thought I’d see Hull in the Premiership for one.