eighteensixtyfive

… by far the greatest team you’ll ever see

Today was quite important. Nottingham Forest FC prolonged the agony for all of us by winning and results went our way. Meaning we are not relegated yet. Part of me wishes we had just lost in the same pathetic roll-over manner we always do and put us out of our misery. But, instead, something special happened …

The first half was dire. Megson rolled out his customary 5-3-2 with Gaz Taylor as sweeper. We looked solid enough, although Colin Doyle, in for the suspended Gerrard, had a couple of saves to make. But we were creating nothing with Dobie and Commons up-front.

The second half started and after around ten minutes we switched to a 4-4-2 with Gaz partnering Dobie and Krissy moving to the left wing. Around the same time the fans started singing “… and it’s Nottingham Forest, we’re by far the greatest team you’ll ever see” louder than anything else heard at the City Ground for a long while. And, amazingly, the players responded. We pushed our luck defensively, but we started driving forwards and creating. Finally, a deep cross was headed down by Dobie to Kris, who had a lot to do to get the shot in from a tight angle. But we scored. A must-win game and we were ahead! The noise levels stayed high, we reverted to 5-3-2 and rode our luck even further. We won three points, Brighton and Crewe both lost and the gap is now four points, with six available. Our fate is still not in our own hands but, agonisingly, we have hope again.

But that’s not the important thing. Because of today I want to renew my season ticket. Today reminded me why I go – to hear 23000 (today’s attendance was 24500 which is pretty good after 29000 turned up for the last plate of shite) united in their passion for a football club. The grandad and his grand-daughter who sit next to us. The man who brings his son to every game. The casual who sits in front of us. The irritating bloke behind us who blames Taylor or Dobie for every misplaced pass. For this relegation (as I still can’t believe the miracle will happen) at least Nottingham Forest won’t roll over and play dead. And it’s all down to us. Not Mark Athur, not Nigel Doughty, not Gaz or Evo or Krissy, not even Gary Megson (although he has played his part). But us, the idiots who shell out every year to watch eleven blokes, wearing red and white, kick a ball.

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Ratings
I probably shouldn’t at this time of night but …

Gerrard: Doesn’t deserve to be in this team. There’s only so much he can do.
Matty: I’m a big fan of Matty’s. But today he was half a yard off the pace. I don’t think he’s fit after his injury yet and shouldn’t be playing.
Melville: Not his best game and without him at his best we look shaky. Old.
Morgan: If Wes was in a successful team we would be hailing him as the best defender in the division. I feel sorry for him.
Doig: Often, the difference between a good record and a great record is the attention to detail. Often the difference between a mediocre footballer and a good one is concentration. A better second half though.
James: Waste of space. He’s been given his chance. Why does he just throw it away?
Gardner: Out of his depth. It’s not his fault and he’s only a kid.
Perch: See above.
Commons: It must be awful to be rejected by the club you support. And then when you finally get the chance to play for them, you are part of the side that goes down. At least he came out to applaud the Trent End – I said during the game that I wanted to see if any players were brave enough to do so.
Dobie: Waste of space. The point of bringing new players in is so their enthusiasm rubs off on the jaded players. Dobie’s enthusiasm is long gone.
Taylor: Megson made him. But he’s reverted to “old Gaz”. I was wishing he was sent off by the end – it would have capped the day. He should have gone for that elbow, but he did also hit the bar twice. So small is the difference between hero and villain.
Evans on for James after about 30 minutes: My favourite player at the moment, but as we observed many times he has little footballing ability. The difference was for much of the game he was the only one who cared. It’s just a shame that when he won the ball he couldn’t pass it. He did have the guts to come out and face us at the end – he’s not even a Forest fan.
Harris on for Dobie in the second half: Made a fair old difference, giving us a bit of movement upfront. However, when he did get the ball he was woeful. I kind of feel for him; he’s only been here a few weeks and he’s obviously never going to start.
Thompson on for Grandad after about 70 minutes: Obviously playing to stake a place next season. He dribbled the ball past people, ran like mad and generally made himself popular. I’ve not had much time for Thommo as a player but he shone amongst the rubbish.

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Forest 0 – 3 Plymouth

At least Evo, Kris and Gardner came out to applaud us at the end of the game. The rest was dire and the team were greeted with chants of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” and “we’re so shit it’s unbelievable”. Gaz should have been sent off for an elbow on their keeper and Matty and Grandad did not look fit. And Gerrard was a cut above, as usual. Beyond that, at least the hope of surviving has now gone. There’s a slim chance we may not finish bottom.

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Great Technology

The Macintosh: I remember teaching my dad how to use a PC. If it’s blue then it appears in bold. If it’s green then it appears underlined. And then I saw a Mac. Bold was bold. Underlined was underlined. And that was how it appeared on the paper. And you could call your files “Letter to the Bank” instead of “Bank.xyz”.

The Amiga: It feels like we have only just caught up to what the Amiga could do years and years ago.

Smalltalk: Still the most elegant and readable programming language with the best IDE.

Java: Nowhere near as good as Smalltalk but miles ahead of the other popular systems of the time.

BeOS: Still the most elegant and responsive operating system with the best filesystem.

The NeXT Macintosh: Nowhere near as good as BeOS but miles ahead of the other popular systems of the time.

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Geek Joke

((Doctor Who)christopherEccleston).act();

javax.media.bbc.BadTypecastException: actor does not want to be typecast.


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