eighteensixtyfive

Wake me up before Agogo

Forest 3 – 1 Swansea

One of the things that puzzled me was the response from a number of Northampton fans when Colinwood (as named by Stress and Pie) joined. You would expect a newly promoted club to be disappointed to be losing their up-and-coming manager, but a number of fans responded with a “good luck, you’re going to need it with him”. Today demonstrated why.

We lined up in a 4-4-2:

On the radio, it was explained that Bennett was dropped to the bench because he was on four bookings. If he picked up another today he would be suspended for next weekend – when we will also be missing Clingan and Agogo due to internationals. Hence Perch slotting in at left-back.

My reading of today’s game, once more, seems to differ from the pundits. It was not a game of two halves – at least from a Forest point of view, although maybe from a Swansea viewpoint you could say that. The first half was pretty dire from where I was sitting – Forest looked lethargic and without movement, but Swansea made us look awful. They pressed us right from our back-line, denying us space and making the City Ground pitch look like the M25 at rush-hour, through roadworks, behind a pile-up.

But worst of all was that we looked like we had no desire to keep the football. Pass it sideways. Oh that was a Swansea player. Win it back. Pass it back. Ooops, that was a bit lazy. Win it back. Pass it sideways. A red shirt! Oh, crappy first touch. Win it back again. The crowd were getting restless – Scolt, Grolt and especially Perch getting the worst of the moans. And Perch was awful. Full-back is all about the positioning and he had no idea. It was no surprise when Fallon rose above the static defence to head the ball home, after a series of corners, ultimately conceded by Perch.

And now for a slight digression: the referee was awful. I initially texted Rish to say that Swansea were dirty – but that is unfair. Rather, everything we did seemed to result in a booking (one for dissent after Grolt was pulled to the ground in front of the ref), every shirt-pull and shove in the back by them was waved on. But during the corner that resulted in the goal, Leon Knight, as the ball flew in, dived to the floor clutching his face. The ball sailed past him into the back of the net, Knight stood up and cheered. It’s a miracle cure for facial injuries, the Trent End nets. A few minutes later Knight pulled Morgan back, who waved his arms about dangerously (given Knight’s delicate cheekbones). It could have been a red for Morgan (there was no actual contact) but luckily the linesman had already flagged for Knight’s pulling – given the way the ref was performing I had feared the worst. In the end, Knight got a yellow.

No changes for the second half and we still passed the ball slowly, with very little movement from the Forest players. But, for some reason, Swansea had taken their foot off the pedal. Whether they simply could not keep up the work-rate from the first half, or they thought it was job done, they allowed Forest the space they had denied so effectively in the first half. This resulted in a long passing maneouvre (lots of backwards and sideways play) that somehow found Perch in space at their right-back position. He shot the tamest shot ever and, somehow, their keeper failed to save it. Perch ran to celebrate in front of the empty space between the Trent End and the Main Stand and we were back in the game. And then an almost identical piece of play found Commons unmarked in the same area. His shot was better than Perch’s, with the same result. That shut the Swansea fans up.

Now the static and unmoving Holt was replaced by Lester who provided some much needed movement up-front. For a few minutes we put Swansea under real pressure – doing to them what they had done to us in the first half. No time on the ball – Lester even harrying the keeper and forcing him to slice his goal-kicks. Agogo took this as a sign that he no longer needed to run. The bloke next to me said “take him off, he’s useless” when Southall played a great through-ball that Agogo sauntered on to – one on one with the keeper and he places it home. Three-one up and Swansea were well and truly silenced. Plus the tannoy played “Wake me up before you go-go”. They’ve been waiting for weeks for that one.

Colinwood then took Commons off, replacing him with Bennett. We switched to a 3-5-2 and suddenly Scolt came to life and Perch looked much more comfortable. A two goal cushion does wonders for your confidence and we played a pacey passing game that tore Swansea apart. Apart from a late chance for Swansea, the only real item of note was when Hughes came on for Agogo and made his mark with a half-volley that went over the bar.

So what does this say about Colinwood? I’ve yet to see us play anywhere near well for ninety minutes. Today we managed about twenty-five, the other week, thirty. The rest of the time we look awful. No passing, deep defending, little movement. And from the Cobblers’ fans reports, this is the norm. According to Commons and Perch, Colinwood gave them a good talking to (one of them used the word roasting, but I always thought that had a totally different meaning in conjunction with footballers). But we need to manage ninety minutes, and soon.

Anyway, I’m not going to moan (or boo – disappointing for the players to get booed off again, at half-time, even if it was awful). We turned the game around, we played some decent stuff for a while, Clingan, Southall, Breckin, Curtis and Morgan were all improved from recent performances and we are three points clear. Top of the league and havin’ a laugh.

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My lovely horse

Stuart Pearce on how to defeat West Ham: “Before the match my daughter said: ‘Beenie the horse wants to sit next to you by the drinks holder on the touchline’. It is difficult to tell a seven-year-old: ‘This is the Premiership, I’m known as Psycho and I’m a hard man’.“

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Wales

Robin Hood was welsh?

Hands off Wales, he’s ours.

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Dean Lard-ass

Proof that he is a cheat. And he knows it.

Incidentally, John Finnigan used to play for Forest. He never made the first team, but Baz and I saw him score a goal at the coldest ever reserve match held in Nottingham, against Sunderland, about ten years ago. We felt very sorry for the cheerleaders, in their short skirts and short tops, despite the fact that the temperatures were below zero.

At the time, Baz had a yellow Ford Fiesta with broken window seals. He had fun driving home as his knees had locked from the cold. The match ended 1-1 – we weren’t glad that we went.

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Inappropriate squad numbers XI

A few years ago, when it was announced that Zidane would wear number 5 for Real Madrid, a friend and I tried to set up a team of players whose numbers suggested that they played in a different position. The rules are simple – the team is based upon the premise that they will play 4-4-2. Full backs wear 2 (right) and 3 (left), with centre backs wearing 4 and 5. Wingers wear 7 (right) and 11 (left), the defensive midfielder wears 6 and the attacking one wears 8. The forwards wear 9 and 10. There is some leeway for different numbering systems, for example, it is acceptable for Wayne Rooney to wear number 8 (especially as he could easily play in the hole).

So far, in this season’s Premiership, I have:

Goalkeeper
1. [I think you would be struggling to find anyone wearing number 1 who was not a goalkeeper - however, in the mid 90s, Charlton did their squad numbers in alphabetical order, so their right back Stuart Balmer wore number 1]

Defence
2 (RB): Abou Diaby (Arsenal – CM)
3 (LB): Steve Finnan (Liverpool – RB/RW)
4 (CB): Kevin Nolan (Bolton – AM); Nobby Solano (Newcastle – RM)
5 (CB): Andy Reid (Charlton – LW); Tugay (Blackburn – DM); Emre (Newcastle – DM/LW)

Midfield
6 (DM): Gaizka Mendieta (Middlesbrough – RM); John Arne Riise (Liverpool – LB)
7 (RW): Christian Dailly (West Ham – CB); Paul Stalteri (Spurs – RB)
8 (AM): Jonathan Woodgate (Middlesbrough – CB)
11 (LW): Noe Pamarot (Portsmouth – RB); Chris Powell (Watford – LB)

Forwards
9 (CF): Khalid Bouhlarouz (Chelsea – CB)
10 (CF): William Gallas (Arsenal – CB)

If anyone else is bored enough to come up with any suggestions, then send in a comment!

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Colin says …

He puts a good case for sending the kids out on loan.

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The Case for the Defence

Nottingham Forest 0 – 0 Carlisle

This was one of those where I thought I had probably watched a different game to those on the radio.

Calderwood declared himself pleased. McGovern called it a game of two halves. Colin Fray said it was a good performance. I was left worried (continuing my new-found theme of not giving the players or staff a break).

We started very well. The now familiar 3-4-1-2, with Jack dropped. Harris played his role with Agogo winning his first start. And what a start. We played high tempo, attacking football with the front three causing Carlisle all sorts of problems. Shots tipped over and cleared off the line and then Grant beats a couple and places the ball in the net. Disallowed. They said for offside although I thought that very dodgy. Shortly followed by Agogo using his hand to control the ball. The ref misses it. The defender, incensed barges into him. The challenge was six of one, half a dozen of the other. The ref was about to wave play on but, after what felt like an age, saw the linesman’s flag and points to the spot. Grant lines up to take it and places it tamely to the keeper’s left. You could say that was fair but I still don’t see what was wrong with Grant’s earlier effort so I’m aggrieved.

I have to say that up to this point we’ve been playing really well. The defence looks solid. The midfielders are doing their screening job. The wing-backs are providing the width and the front three are leaving Carlisle dazed and confused. Until the penalty. Suddenly Carlisle start to take the game to us. They carve our defence open. All the worrying traits from Tuesday night reappear. Holt (Gary) goes AWOL. Clingan cannot find a red shirt. Luckily we have an outlet for the hoofed clearances – Agogo’s pace meaning we can clear the ball almost anywhere and keep possession. But the biggest worry was the defence.

The key Carlisle attack was to play the ball from central in the middle of our half (where Holt and Clingan should have been covering) and laying it out to their right wing. You would expect Bennett to come and cover but he didn’t as Wes would not move from the near post – if Bennett had came out it would leave a hole for the runner. So the right winger had time and space to place the perfect cross.

I’m no defensive coach but I see three options in this situation:

• Bennett goes wide, the centre halves stay central and Holt or Clingan move back to cover the space vacated by Bennett
• Bennett goes wide, the centre halves move left to cover the space and Southall drops back to cover the right hand side
• Bennett stays where he is, covering the space, and Holt or Clingan moves out to the wing to stop the cross

I have no idea which the preferred option is. But doing none of them got us into real trouble. Personally I think Breckin should have chosen one of the options and told the others what to do. I’m sure that if Cullip had been playing that is what would have happened. But this continued for about twenty minutes and we looked pretty much on the ropes for large parts of the first half (this was disguised by some of the Agogo-powered counter attacks, which is probably why the pundits claimed we did OK).

In the absence of Breckin making a defensive call, Calderwood did at half time. The second half saw us play 4-4-2 – Perch at right-back, Harris on the left wing. Immediately you could see the difference as Bennett and Morgan seemed to have a better understanding of what they were supposed to be doing and the hole down the left was closed. And things looked OK straight away as Harris had a goal disallowed for offside (it was the far end of the field but the flag was early so I’ll accept the decision). Unfortunately, the change of formation nullified most of the rest of our attacking threat as Carlisle kept possession and won a seemingly endless run of corners.

Grolt was replaced by Dobie (the substitution prompted a few boos, which, in a peverse way, was nice to hear – his work-rate has not been unnoticed). No real difference. Harris basically vacated the left wing and started doing the defensive midfield job of Holt and Clingan (seeing as they could not be bothered). The Carlisle pressure was building and building. In the 4-4-2 we seemed to have no outlet so all the hoofed, desperate clearances simply came straight back to us, giving the defence no respite at all. We looked increasingly shaky and a point looked pretty doubtful. So Colin played his final hand. A double substitution – Thommo for Holt and Jack for Harris. Thommo moved to right-back, Perch into defensive midfield and Jack played behind the front two. So a 4-3-1-2 with no-one playing the left hand side at all.

This caused Carlisle immediate problems as Jack went on one of his trademark chicken-runs. Brought down in the box (it was the far end of the pitch but it looked a valid penalty to me) and the ref books Jack for diving. A few minutes later and Agogo was brought down in the box. Again, the ref waves play on. And loses the plot. Every time a Forest player goes near a Carlisle player he blows for a foul. We still cannot clear the ball. We still cannot get any respite from the waves of attacks. And the ref helps them by giving free-kicks whenever we look like keeping possession.

I was glad when the final whistle came. We were lucky to hold on for a point, despite having the ball in the back of the net twice. This was nothing like Tuesday. Apart from Clingan and Holt, everyone put in the effort required. Carlisle played well. Not outstanding but well. They had done their homework and knew how to hurt us. Colin showed that he was prepared to change things to block the obvious weakness but it did have the unfortunate consequence of hurting us as an attacking force. And we kept a clean sheet and stay top of the league. Can’t complain there.

But it was not a game of two halves. We had twenty (extremely) good minutes in the first half and were pretty much on the back-foot for the rest of the game. Fair play to Carlisle for giving us a good game. Well done to most of the team for raising their games from the frankly appaling Tuesday night display. And congratulation to the defence for fighting for a clean sheet (despite the tactical worries). But there is still a hell of a lot of work to do. For those that call Calderwood a defensive coach – the defence still has a lot to learn. For those that claim that Calderwood is an attacking coach, our major route to the strikers was the last ditch clearance into the air for Agogo to run onto. And for the two in the middle. Sort it out. If Holt needs this operation, give him the anasthetic now.

Man of the Match: Perch played a blinder but, as it was his first start, I’ll give it to Agogo’s pace.

Oh, and I have to mention the Carlisle fans. There were loads of them and they made lots of noise. Good work.

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Geek stuff

If you use iCal or Mozilla Calendar (or even the Remote Calendars plug-in for Outlook, then I have now published a Forest Fixtures calendar that you can subscribe to.

I can’t promise to keep it 100% up to date but I will try.

Update: The link is now available via the Forest site fixtures page and I’ve also changed the server that the link is hosted on. To subscribe use webcal://ical.mac.com/rahoulbaruah/NFFC.ics (of course you will need one of the pieces of software listed above).

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It’s tough at the top

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this” I thought as I pulled into the rush hour traffic on the M621, on my way to watch notorious bottlers Nottingham Forest. Two thirds of a successful back line out with injury, against a struggling side in an evening game. Probably not good.

And I wasn’t wrong. Normally I give the players and staff at the club the benefit of the doubt. But don’t forget that, for the most part, this is the same pack of fat wallet wasters that have shat Nottingham Forest into a deep hole over the last few years. So no punches pulled today.

Roll of Honour

Wes Morgan: When you’re a defender you are supposed to kick the ball (on the floor sometimes), challenge the attackers and head the ball. It’s no coincidence that pretty much every Oldham attack was a high ball at the area Wes was defending.

Sammy Clingan: Spain must have been shit for you to be in the side that beat them. Honestly, I don’t think a single pass connected with a red-shirted player.

Gary Holt: There is an area in front of the back line but behind the attackers. This is the midfield. Your job, as defensive midfielder is to cover this area and provide protection to the defenders. Not go walkabout, leaving Oldham players acres of space and time to place high balls in the area of Wes’ head (see above).

Jack Lester: Are you trying to win the most yellow cards in a season? Or maybe it’s just reds, judging by the idiotic two-footed lunge at their keeper that, if you had any sort of aim, would have seen you sent off and the keeper hospitalised. Thank goodness CC seems to have a policy of replacing players on a yellow as soon as possible.

Neil Harris: We hoped that the goal may boost your confidence. It was hope in vain, as apart from a header onto the roof of the net, every time you recieved the ball it went backwards.

Grant Holt: You nearly escaped unscathed. But then you lashed out at one of their players, seemingly for no reason, to win yourself a needless yellow at the end of the game.

Junior Agogo: OK, a bit harsh including him here, and it’s a minor criticism compared to the rest. But, when you’re a pacy front-man and you’ve got someone like Grant alongside you, let Grant play in the centre with his back to goal and you move off to receive the knock-downs. Don’t stand there with your back to goal, letting that pace go to waste.

The ref was pretty poor too and I have no idea where six minutes of injury time came from. We definitely missed Cullip as no-one was organising the defensive five at all. But, this is now Mr Calderwood’s first test and I sincerely hope he’s up to the job.

In other news, David “I used to be a good footballer but now I like beer” Johnson has retired.

UPDATE: One more worrying factor from last night – when the first goal went in the players, especially Smith, looked dejected. No “come on lads”, no “we can turn this around”. Just a slow trot back for kick off. CC’s team spirit, so much in evidence last week, seems a bit thin on the ground.

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The Fear

Russel Slade says that “Forest will be hard to stop”.

Alex at Trent End Talk has noticed it too.

It doesn’t matter that the performances aren’t all there yet. We have momentum. People are scared of playing us. This is a very good thing.

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