eighteensixtyfive

Hitting form?

Awesome display from the Reds today. Best I’ve seen ‘em in play in two years. Fantastic support, and CC kicking water bottles all over the place. He turned round to the fans and told them Bristol were losing, the place went mental. Forest fans showed they were the best on the planet today, even applauded the news that Orient were safe and they returned the favour when the Bristol result came in.

Proud to be a Red.

says Guinless on the Vital forum.

Crewe at home or taking my daughter to a party next Saturday? Hmmmm …

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Attacking throw-in by Alan Wright

CORRECTION: Defensive throw-in by Alan Wright

If you’ve ever had the joy of watching a match via the BBC web-site’s Live Text service you will recognise sentences like that.

Unless you support a “big” club - when you get things like:

A little bit testy there between Jon Obi Mikel and Xabi Alonso. Things are getting less “continental” and more domestic. More eggs and bacon than croissants and coffee.

Jon Obi Mikel is in the wars tonight after a clash with his team-mate Didier Drogba. He is made of tough stuff and shrugs off the inconvenience of it. Drogba hobbles around a bit more than his fellow African before getting on with things.

Didier Drogba is getting involved after being fouled by Javier Mascherano. Not a good idea when you’re on a yellow card with time running out. Get out of there and let a team-mate take their time over a free-kick.

Salomon Kalou is ready to come on. Oh no he isn’t. The striker has put on the number 24 shirt which belongs to Shaun Wright-Phillips. He takes it off and looks to dig his own out of the CFC kit bag.

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and all the roads ….

that lead the way are winding,
and all the goals Kinkladze [1] scores are blinding,
…
and after all, you’re my Alan Ball

[1] sheep

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Que sera, sera

Nottingham Forest 3 - 0 Bournemouth

Not much to say about this one:

First half: pretty even. McGoldrick (I think) was causing a lot of problems and they had three or four very good chances. We were playing decent passing football, as were Bournemouth, and I think that probably made a difference - if they had stuck nine men behind the ball, things would have been much more grim.

As it was, the crowd was behind the team, Carlisle had taken the lead against Brizzle and even Smith was playing well. However, the goal came from nowhere - Commons on a run suddenly unleashed a right-foot rocket.

Then the turning point of the game - one of their players made a dreadful mistake, passing the ball directly to Lester who went on a run. In order to try and make amends their player lunged at Jack, missing the ball completely and bringing him down. While he was not the last man the crowd were chanting “off, off, off” and the ref had no hesitation in showing the red card. To me, it looked like a yellow - apparently the red was for dangerous play rather than stopping a goal-scoring chance - in which case, fair enough. From then on, Bournemouth were not really in the game, apart from scything down Commons (Krissy needing lengthy treatment - very worrying with only two fit strikers and potential play-off matches upcoming).

News filtered in at half time that Brizzle had equalised.

Second half and Bournemouth used all their substitutions (one in the first half, two at half time) - risky, given it was a hot day and they were down to ten. At this point the crowd started to revert to type - complaining that our nice passing play often involved a pass back or sideways. My favourite comment was from a bloke behind me: “they need to stop passing it about aimlessly and get it forwards …. oh don’t release it so early!” In other words, complain when we pass it, complain when we play it long.

About ten seconds after he said this, Krissy unleashed another rocket, this time with his left. Two nil and the game was over. We basically took control of the game and the fans stopped complaining. I was listening to the radio (like an old git) during the game, for score updates - Colin Fray said “and what the City Ground would love to hear is that it is 2-1 to Carlisle”. Unfortunately, a large section of the crowd misheard and thought Carlisle had taken the lead again - to much cheering.

We launched attack after attack - eventually a break fell to us. Commons crossed, Prutton headed the ball on the byline at the far post. His header hit the back of the keeper’s head (may have been a defender - can’t really tell) and it bounced in. Prutts immediately claimed it but we knew it was an own goal. Almost immediately the score came through from up north - 2-1 to Brizzle.

We just happily passed the ball around now - the game was pretty much over - and whilst we made a few chances there was not much left in it. Bournemouth just wanted to go home (a couple of half-chances notwithstanding) - while we saw Felix Bastians for the first time this season (replacing young Lewis). Jack hit the post. Grant did an awful scissors kick to much hilarity (he waving his arms at the Trent End with a big grin on his face) and we were treated to a Holt-for-Holt swap. Jack then fired over - the dejection on his face plain to see - he really wanted (and deserved) a goal today.

And that was that (apart from the news that Brizzle had got a third). The gap is still four points. There are two games left. One win and Brizzle have second place. We need to win both and City need to drop points in both games. Which is very very unlikely. At least we are looking like going into the play-offs on a run of form - rather than plummetting down the league as I feared. And we may just get to christen the new Wembley …

Losers:
No-one (honestly).

Winners:
Smith: Distribution good. Saves good. Command of area good.
Prutton: his best game since his return.
Commons: most people’s choice for man of the match. Four goals in two games, an assist for the third. We could complain about him not being like this week in, week out - but as long as he does it for the next five games I don’t care.
Lester and Grolt: lots of hard work in the sun, both came close and both deserved a goal.
Perchio: a bit of a headless chicken in the first twenty minutes - then decided (or was told) to act as anchor and stop McGoldrick and totally nullified Bournemouth’s only threat. My man of the match.

Posted in General

Who needs Mourinho?

Bless him, CC does try. By all means ask us to leave off the players.

But Jose would be shouting in the press about how

Bristol City have a great club. But in 20 years they have won autonatic promotion only four times. I have only been managing for a few years and I have already won it once.

Deflect attention away from our players (who obviously need protecting, poor loves) and heap the pressure onto Brizzle.

That’s the way to do it Colin …

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There can be only one

E-mail

NFFC GHolt

for Player of the Year today.

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Make up your own mind

Taken from Kris Commons’ column on the FA website - he was talking after the Blackpool match, but as far as I am concerned this could apply to any one of a number of matches this season:

The crowd were not happy - that was disappointing. There were a few shouts of ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’ at the end.

We were disappointed with the result, hearing a few shouts does not help. A few of the players went to clap the fans to say thanks for their support, but they were given some stick.You could feel the tension around the ground.

Our fans come to the ground in their thousands, they are our 12th man. When the fans are behind us, they are awesome. When they are negative, we can feel it. It deflates our confidence. We need them as much as they need us. We need to do this together. The 11 players on the pitch are trying to get the club promoted.

So what is the point? Whether or not you feel the players and manager are putting in the effort, surely calling them is not going to help? Nothing I say is going to change the behaviour of the fans, but I leave it to you to decide…

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That’s what I want to hear

It was not panic, it was bottle, guts, determination and a bloody big rocket sent up their backsides. Prutton did not really celebrate his goal, he just had a determined look on his face.

taken from a post by forestfaninvegas

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You get what you give

Nottingham Forest 1 - 1 Rotherham United

I disagree with Colin Fray’s summary on the radio. I disagree with the Vital match report. I even disagreed with my brother in our post-match disection on the way home. This is how I saw it.

Listening to the radio while waiting for kick-off, Fray mentioned that 28000 were expected. “That could work for Rotherham” was my immediate thought - any visiting manager should have realised by now that to beat Forest you stifle their play and the frustration of the fans will do the rest. The match kicked off, a cross comes in and Smith sets the tone for the rest of the match by ignoring the easy catch and instead, weakly punching the ball onto a Rotherham’s player’s head. If the Miller was not so surprised it would have gone in - instead he headed wide. This prompted howls of derision aimed at Smith. Other points to note: Curtis cleared the Main stand with a clearance and the bloke in front of me said “at last, we are playing our strongest team”. I didn’t reply but I did think that we looked particularly lightweight in midfield without a holding player.

Unfortunately for us I was proved right a few minutes later. A runner broke from midfield, Breckin stepped forwards to meet him and Chambers moved across to cover the captain’s space. Unfortunately, Breckin completely missed his challenge and Chambers’ move left the Rotherham player with acres to run into - he was practically given a written invitation to shoot, and shoot he did. One nil and all because Breckin was pulled out of position as McGugan and Prutton did the attacking thing at the other end of the field. (Thought of the day; we would not have conceded if Gary Holt had been playing). Thankfully, later in the first half CC saw the error and moved Perchio into a holding role with Commons and McGugan swapping wings.

The game was pretty open with chances for both sides and this quietened the obviously nervous 28000 Forest fans, who stopped barracking the outfield players, instead reserving their bile for Smith. Every long kick was met with cries of anguish. Every short roll-out was greeted with ironic cheers. Now, on reflection, I don’t rate Smith (in fact I would go as far as to say that he is a “dodgy keeper”. Excellent at reflex saves (as proved later in this game) but awful at kicking and absolutely refuses to come off his line for crosses (almost your dictionary definition of a “DK”). As his kicking has got worse his confidence has reduced - and I am absolutely convinced that he now hoofs it long because he is so worried about playing it short: straight at an opposition player. So what do you do with a player short on confidence? Jeer everything he does wrong and make fun of the things he does right of course.

Tyson and Grolt fashioned a couple of chances up front and then Tyson was taken out in their area. He stayed down - not moving for a long time and when he did stand up, he was moving awkwardly. Grant took the penalty, cooly slotting it past Cutler. The players celebrated, apart from Tyson. This was looking bad. He opted to play on but later had to stop for treatment. This was looking very bad. And that was really about it for the first half. A handful of chances for both sides (us probably marginally on top), Smith getting abuse and us looking unbalanced with our attacking midfield line-up.

Second half and it was no surprise to see Jack replace Tyson. Ordinarily I would regard Grant and Jack as our best partnership up-front - Tyson is probably a better striker than Jack but I don’t think he works with Grant as well. But today Jack was nowhere. Lots of running, no effectiveness. The fans’ frustration was almost under control, but did come out whenever the ball was passed backwards or the ball was played long. Quick tactical reprise: passing football - you try to keep possession, meaning you often do the safe thing to avoid risking the loss of the ball. In other words you cannot go forwards all the time. Long-ball football: get the ball into the “danger” area as quickly as possible by playing it in the air, meaning you often lose possession but the possession you have is generally in more threatening positions (and hence more exciting). You can have passing football or attacking football. Not both, unless your opponents are either out-classed or have decided not to defend.

However, things were scuppered when young Lewis went off injured. The lack of depth in our squad was revealed when he was replaced by Wes - meaning that we were playing a bizarre 3-4-3 in defence (Chambers, Breckin, Morgan) and a 2-4-4 in attack (Breckin swapping his centre half role for centre forward). This also had the effect of nullifying Commons from open play as he spent all his time trying to keep in line with Jack and Grant rather than dropping deep and providing some much needed creativity (in the absence of McGugan) from midfield. News began to filter in of Gillingham taking the lead against Brizzle and the crowd started urging the team forwards (”Attack, Attack, Attack” being the chant). This lead to utter confusion for the players. Do they play it short and risk derision or play it long and risk derision. The result was half way between the two - play it half way and lose possession. Commons forced a good save from Cutler at a free kick but that was about it for chances. Bennett replaced Lofty at left back (old man or is Bennett our last attacking option?) and CC showed some fire and passion smashing his water bottle when a decision didn’t go our way. Eventually we forced another chance, Cutler saving from Jack and the rebound falling to Commons - his toe poke was going in when it was cleared a few inches off the line. They forced a couple of chances to but the last fell to another Commons free kick, which he skied.

This was the most tense and nervous I have been at a football match for years (probably the play-off game against Sheffield United) and you could see the despair and dejection on the players’ faces at the final whistle. Brizzle had lost (as had Scunny) yet we could not capitalise on it. Breckin sat with his head in his hands in the centre circle for a good few minutes before Prutton and Chambers (I think) forced him to get up and applaud the fans.

It’s no secret that I have no love for this bunch of players. I actually agree with Megson (who recently said “Forest is a great club - they’ll be even greater in 2007 when some of the contracts are up”). I don’t bother watching England any more and I rarely watch Match of the Day because I feel the players are over-paid primadonnas who don’t give a stuff for the people who pay their wages. Most weeks I feel exactly the same about the Forest players (even if they are on a fraction of the wages). But not today. Today they did give a stuff. They ran, they fought (even CC showing his fiery side) and they were a bit bewildered and confused (due, in no small amount, to the abuse they got off us). But they really really tried and the reaction at the final whistle showed how important this game was to them. The problem is that we are just not good enough. CC said before the game that we had to prove that we were one of the best two sides in the division. This game shows that, despite the massive wage bill, we are not.

Losers:
Smith - kicking abysmal (again) and short on confidence.
Chambers - had an absolute mare in the first half and was about half a yard off the pace. However, he did improve in the second.
Curtis - some would criticise him for not crossing the half way line. I would say he does not really know how to.
Prutton - lots of running, no impact. At least he looks less like a homeless now.
Commons - infuriating.
Tyson - now we are down to two fit strikers.

Winners:
Wright - did well till he was replaced.
Breckin - organised the defence and told people what they should be doing (a first in my book).
Grant - dangerous throughout but ultimately frustrated.

Posted in General

Thank you David

Nice of David Pleat to mention his employers during the Sevilla vs Spuz game yesterday (as JJ crossed the ball for Daws to head wide).

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