eighteensixtyfive

Fat Joe Kinnear joins Newcastle United (updated twice)

Joke Innear is now in charge at the North East Comedy Club. And I have to say, I think he’ll do well.

Mainly because he is only supposed to be there for a few weeks.

You see, when he came to Forest, he was a revelation.

A lot of people forget how poor the football was in the second half of Paul Hart’s reign, how unbalanced the side was, how he refused to communicate with anyone (especially after the board refused him permission to talk his beloved Leeds United).

And then Fat Joe breezed in, talked up our history, gave us his memories about how noisy the Trent End was when he was here as a player. And most importantly, he immediately fixed the problems with the side. A “new” left-back (Greedy Alan Rogers) and a right winger (Andy-Impeys-got-no-neck) gave the side balance, Fat Joe gave the squad belief and any threats of relegation were immediately vanquished.

Things were looking bright. Nigel Doughty and Mark Arthur appeared to have promised Fat Joe a big transfer kitty in the summer, we were going to get some “sexy signings”. Even better, the club was “serious about promotion”.

And then the summer came.

For those that don’t remember, this was the summer of the “Trent End Bond” and the “Tour of America”. The Trent End Bond was some sort of game of financial chicken where the board tried to take on the council over the loan payments for building the Trent End. The board blinked first and our transfer kitty was suddenly gone. The Tour of America was a shambles where our players ended up playing in fields and changing in sheds. Not the sort of thing you’d expect from a professional football club.

And then Joe Kinnear went mad. Not ga-ga, locked up, mad. Just lost the plot, forgot how to do his job mad. The players seemed to have no idea what they were doing. Our creative midfielder left for a local rival and was replaced by sick-notes. Playing Derby was “just another game”. The fans were morons. And the club hit freefall – a freefall that ended with years in League One and Gary Megson having to dismantle the club before Calderwood rebuilt it.

I think that this is all down to the fact that Fat Joe had never managed a big club with high expectations before. After the farce of a summer (for which I hold the board responsible), Kinnear realised that, despite the lack of funds, despite the lack of a pre-season, he was still expected to win promotion. The squad expected it, the board expected it, and we the 27000 regulars (remember those attendances?) demanded it. And he just couldn’t handle the pressure.

Don’t get me wrong – I really liked him when he joined us. I just don’t think he knew how to handle the expectation.

Which is why, I hope for his sake, that Newcastle United is sold quickly and they can appoint a permanent manager.

Because if he thinks the expectations were high at the City Ground, if he thinks we were “morons” for demanding the highest standard, he’s in for a big big shock when he moves to Geordieland.

UPDATE (3/10/8 12:15): I think the pressure is getting to him already.

UPDATE AGAIN (3/10/8 12:45): I’d love it if everyone took the piss.

Tags: andy impey, joe kinnear, newcastle united   Posted in Opinion

Message to Alan Pardew: think before you speak

So the Charlton boss has to mouth off after the match; whereas CC mentioned that both sides would have felt unhappy, Pardew seems to have gone on a crusade and obviously feels that the only reason Charlton didn’t win was because the dice were loaded against his team by the man in black. Listen to both managers here. Then, in this interview, Pardew talks about Kelvin Wilson’s reprieve:

“I don’t want to see any players sent off but, by the letter of the law, he was the last man. Wes Morgan would not have got across to catch Varney,”

Hmmm, sounds to me more like, “I don’t want to see any players sent off, but he should have been sent off”. I too think that Kelvin probably could have walked, but you should choose your words more carefully.

If the above point is just me being pedantic, then I think this proves that Pardew is taking things to extremes; he is suggesting that teams should ignore the “Respect” agenda to which all clubs have subscribed:

“Do we need to put the referee under pressure to make him give decisions that are the right ones?”

The “right ones”? For whom? However, this is the one that really takes the biscuit:

“My teams play with discipline.”

You mean like Luke Varney, falling over at the slightest nudge then getting up to moan at the referee about it? Or maybe like Nicky Bailey, who would have had a decent match for the Addicks, had he not spend half of it on the floor? Or what about Grant Basey, who was seemingly destined for A&E after his clash with Matt Thornhill, but was fine after just a minute of treatment on the sidelines?

Let’s get this straight, the referee was poor, and made bad decisions – against both teams (witness Chris Cohen having five fouls given against him, despite the fact that he barely made a challenge; or maybe Matt Thornhill being booked for winning the ball in the air).

Just like there should be consequences for the referee, I hope that what goes around, comes around for Alan Pardew if he continues to spout rubbish like this.

On a separate issue, Pardew also seems to claim that Chris Cohen was the best player on the pitch – as a direct result of the fact that he was introduced to the West Ham first team by … Alan Pardew.

Tags: alan pardew, charlton athletic, colin calderwood, nottingham forest   Posted in General, News

Nottingham Forest 0-0 Charlton Athletic

Difficult to know where to start with this one: the wonderful save by Paul Smith that ultimately saved us a point? How about the missed chance where three Forest players slid in to try and meet Matt Thornhill’s cross-cum-shot? Or maybe the poor refereeing disply that left both managers and sets of fans unhappy?

Maybe it would be safest to start with the facts: neither team scored, although both had a (limited) number of chances, and Forest ended the game with ten men after the harsh dismissal of Matt Thornhill (of which, more later).

Forest could have scored in the first half, with decent chances for Martin (twice) and Earnshaw (also twice), and Chris Cohen causing some problems for Nicky Weaver with a long-range effort. Hameur Bouazza had a couple of efforts for Charlton, but Smudge was not unduly bothered. A decent performance going forward, although the Reds did still seem shaky at the back, and were lucky to retain a full complement of players – a nervous-looking Kelvin Wilson lost possession cheaply, and held back Luke Varney. I think many of us were expecting a red card, but the ref adjudged that Wes was covering the goal and only produced yellow. CC reckons that was the right decision, unsurprisingly Alan Pardew disagreed (and I thought that Kelvin probably should have walked).

The second half saw the introduction of Matt Thornhill for Luke Chambers, which Perchio moving to right-back, and for the first 15-20 minutes Charlton were in the ascendent. However, Pardew reshuffled his pack following an injury to centre-half Jonathan Fortune, and as we discussed in the podcast, this actually worked in Forest’s favour. There were efforts on goal from Tyson and Martin, that were never really likely to go in, and sub Andy Andrew Cole failed to rise to meet a Tyson cross. In the meantime, Kelvin continued to look shaky at the back, and should definitely have walked following a poor sliding challenge on a Charlton man – not quite sure why the ref let it go. Furthermore, a lack of communication saw Kelvin and Jules clash heads, and the referee’s decision to halt play to allow treatment incurred the wrath of Pardew and the Charlton fans (although given that WIlson stayed down and Jules needed treatment as well for a cut head, I think the ref had to stop the match).

Forest fans and management also had cause to vent their spleens; firstly, at the ref’s continued tendency to bow to the play-acting of the Charlton players, which culminated in a very harsh yellow for Matt Thornhill, apparently for winning the ball. Thornhill received his marching orders six minutes before time, when he slid for a 50-50 ball, clashed with the Charlton left-back, who ended up making contact with the advertising hoardings. A clumsy challenge, but both players went to win the ball, and the referee only gave the free-kick after the linesman flagged – so how he could then produce a second yellow card for Thornhill without first consulting said linesman is beyond me.

There was still time for the goalkeeping highlight, a fine low save by Smudge who dived down to his right and palmed away Andy Gray’s late header.

I wanted a win, but given the fact that we kept a clean sheet and finished with only ten men (even if it was the wrong man sent off), I will take a point. The debate about the ref will continue to rumble on though…

Forest (4-3-3): Smith; Chambers (Thornhill, h-t), Morgan, WIlson (c), Bennett; Perch, Moussi, Cohen; Earnshaw (Cole 81), Tyson, Martin (McCleary 65). Not used: Roberts, Breckin.

Charlton (4-1-4-1): Weaver; Cranie (Semedo 86), Hudson, Fortune (Ambrose 59), Youga; Basey; Sam (Gray 72), Bailey, Holland, Boauzza; Varney. Not used: Elliott, Dickson.

Ref: Karl Evans – his first, and at this rate, his last season at Championship level.

Watch Virgin Media highlights here.

Tags: alan pardew, charlton athletic, colin calderwood, kelvin wilson, matt thornhill, nottingham forest   Posted in General, Match Reports

Nottingham Forest vs Charlton Athletic: Match Report and Podcast

Another dodgy referee, poor defending and good attacking play – but it all ends nil-nil.

 

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Tags: charlton athletic, match report, nottingham forest, podcast   Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts

In praise of Derby

I bet you didn’t expect to see that title on this site, did you? But I am seriously writing in praise of our woolly friends, as they are standing up to QPR over their (frankly ridiculous) ticket pricing policy.

QPR and their multibillionaire owners have already increased season ticket prices, and defend the increase of matchday prices on the grounds that all season tickets sold out, which means that demand outstrips supply. The fact that they do not appear to be filling the ground at present seems to have little bearing on this policy.

Derby and QPR agreed matchday prices at the start of the season – QPR have decided to try and change this agreement, and Derby’s administration are doing the decent thing and sticking up for the fans:

Club spokesman Matt McCann told BBC Radio Derby: “We think it’s too high and we don’t think that’s fair.

“We have stood our ground and QPR have exercised their right to appeal that to the Football League.

“We expect a decision within 24 hours but either way, we will make sure our supporters aren’t the victims of this situation.”

The comments are worth a read; many fans of all clubs (including QPR) are talking of boycotting Loftus Road. These things are painful for us ordinary fans who just want to watch our teams, but I cannot help but think that sometimes, it is the only way to drum the message home to the “investors” who run many modern football clubs.

Tags: derby county, qpr, ticket prices   Posted in General, News

Preston North End 2-1 Nottingham Forest

Another defeat, another match where we concede sloppy goals and are not quite clinical enough at the other end. I did not see/hear/listen to any of the match, save for the BBC Live Text commentary in the last ten minutes, so I don’t feel qualified to comment on any aspect of what actually happened out there; but I would like to comment on the post-match reaction.

Firstly, the boss: Colin Calderwood was clearly angry, and you can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times we have really heard him have a post-match rant:

“There are one or two who are not taking responsibility, it always seems to be someone else’s fault.”

Interesting words, although perhaps understandably CC was not willing to oublicly name names. Suggests to me that the problems from set-pieces are not in the tactics or the coaching, but in players not doing what they should.

As for the fans, there have been the predictable “CC must go” mutterings from a vocal minority, including (apparently) the first “CC out” call to Talksport, as well as a suggestion from someone who went to the match that Lee Martin is pfaffing about too much:

“Mcleary looked good, much better than martin, if you were to say that 6 months ago 1 was at man u and 1 was at bromley martin looked more of the non league player.”

To anyone calling for CC’s head, remember that he did what you asked last night – he went 4-4-2, he dropped Chambers, and he played Andy Andrew Cole. So does that mean that you were wrong too?

From what I have seen this season, I think in some ways we have been too ambitious; Chris Cohen was talking about aiming for the Premier League – there is a big gap in class between League One and the Championship, and although I would love to see us at the top end of the table, I also think that sometimes, you need to take things one step at a time.

While many fans understandably point towards Sir Brian’s legendary assertion that a good team will be built from the back, I also think that we should remember that strong teams also defend from the front. From what I have heard, Andy Andrew Cole showed little or no movement last night, and Lee Martin repeated his trick of giving the ball away, leaving the full-back (in this case Chris Cohen) stranded and leading directly to a goal (see also Wolves away). Despite all the criticism heaped on the full-backs, and occasionally the centre-halves), the change of formation and change of personnel at the back makes it quite apparent that there are people higher up the pitch who aren’t doing their jobs properly.

Finally, a plea to my fellow Reds – just like I have said in previous years, there is little point in looking at the league table at this stage of the season. That doesn’t mean that I think it is OK to be in the bottom three, but it certainly doesn’t mean that we are going to be relegated yet (if you look at the Premier League table, then Tottenham will be relegated and Hull in Europe); there is a lot of football to be played, and the team are doing OK (they were applauded off the pitch by the travelling fans) – it sometimes takes a little time to adjust to playing at a higher level.

Tags: andrew cole, chris cohen, colin calderwood, lee martin, nottingham forest, preston north end   Posted in General

Nottingham Forest 1-2 Burnley

If you have listened to our podcast, you will already know what we thought about the referee, and you will appreciate that we both felt that Mr Penton had a significant part to play in Forest’s downfall on Saturday. It is little consolation that both Burnley goals were against the run of play, and although Forest were poor at times, they were very bright at others.

In writing these reports, I often reflect not only upon the match, but also upon the reactions of supporters and the players and management. I actually agreed with most of what Calderwood said immediately after the match, although I was less enthused by his 2-3-5/3-2-5, “let’s just aimlessly chase the game”-type formation. As for the fans, I was pleased to hear the reaction to the Ajax-style, “total voetbal” possession in the first-half, where the team ran Burnley ragged with 30-odd uninterrupted passes, and less pleased to hear the howls of derision when attempting to play the same way in the second half. A fickle bunch, are Forest supporters.

I disagreed with Rahoul in the podcast – I thought Luke Chambers was shown up again at right-back, especially when you contrast his performance with rookie Joe Heath on the other flank. Young Joe did not have a perfect afternoon, but his positional sense and ideas about what to do with the ball were far superior to his more-experienced colleague in the other full-back berth. Speaking of which, whatever happened to young Brendan Maloney? I have never seen him play, but have heard good things about him – maybe it would give Luke some blessed relief to give Brendan a run-out? Having said that, I would be loathe to go into the away match with two rookie full-backs.

There was some criticism of another member of the back four on VitalForest: Wes remains an enigma; I actually think that he is being made to suffer for having to cover Chambers. Wes’ tackling also needs to improve, although I am sure that even the Burnley fans will admit that the penalty award was harsh.

I am afraid that the 4-3-3 still isn’t working. Despite an excellent performance from Chris Cohen, in which he not only showed good invention and movement, but also increased positional discipline (which was part of what let us down against Wolves), the midfield were over-run. Perchio had (I thought) an excellent match, notably getting across to cover the full-backs when they were having positional difficulties, and the Moose was quiet but (apart from an awful attempted clearance from which Akinbiyi forced a save) did not let us down. The trouble was that Championship teams will exploit the extra space that a three-man midfield grants them, and we have seen it on enough occasions now.

I have to give credit to Burnley – as the NEP headline states, Forest were “mugged by streetwise Burnley”. They knew how to rough us up (helped by some terribly lax refereeing), but were also able to bring on the (still brilliant) Robbie Blake to give Luke Chambers further nightmares, ultimately leading to the penalty incident. Also, when you have Graham Alexander, a noted set-piece expert, you don’t really need chances from open play, as evidenced by their willingness to stick eleven men behind the ball.

While I think Kenny Burns’ assessment is harsh, I do also think that Forest were outsmarted on this occasion – I still reserve most of my ire for Mr Penton for letting the Burnley players rough us up so much, without even a word in their ears. I am also surprised to see Kenny have a go at Paul Smith – I doubt whether Petr Cech or Edwin van der Sar would have saved that free-kick, and while the fans continue to lambast Smith for poor distribution, I still maintain that it is a lack of creative movement that causes Smudge’s hesitation when it comes to throwing or kicking the ball out. Finally, the other oft-quoted moan about our custodian is that he does not command his area well enough – there was one occasion where there was a mix-up between him and Wes in the first-half, and I clearly saw Smudge call to Wes, who promptly ignored the shout. Make up your own mind about that one…

My main concern is that, after a spanking, followed by an unjust defeat, that the players’ heads will go down. I hope that Calderwood keeps his promise that he will freshen things up at Preston; however, I would be a little nervous about heaping too much responsibility on the kids in a difficult away match.

For the record, I don’t think we will have too much to worry about; we will play worse than this and win matches, and surely we cannot keep having bad luck and bad decisions all season. I think it is also worth remembering that it is easy to feel down in the dumps after a weekend when we slip below our woolly friends in the table. However, I do hope that some of the tactical issues are addressed, otherwise the season could feel longer and harder than it needs to be.

Tags: burnley, chris cohen, colin calderwood, joe heath, nottingham forest, paul smith, wes morgan   Posted in General, Match Reports

Nottingham Forest vs Burnley, Match Report and Podcast

A rant about the referee – where we even manage to avoid swearing (which was quite an achievement).

Smith,

Chambers, Morgan, Wilson, Heath

The Moose, Perchio, Cohen

Martin, Earnshaw, Tyson

 

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Tags: burnley, match report, nottingham forest, podcast   Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts

Debate

In view of the lack of other Forest-related stuff at the moment (save for John Toshack’s embarrassing decision to try and play Robbie Earnshaw as a lone striker against Azerbaijan), I found this thread quite interesting: who do you think has been the best Forest manager since Sir Brian retired?

I personally feel that this accolade has to go to Frank Clark: faced with the tough job of succeeding the great man himself, he went about it quietly after a slow start (CC-doubters, take note!); he also wanted his teams to play decent counter-attacking football (even if that did sometimes lead to tactics being “give the ball to Stan and let him do the rest”), and tried to play everyone in their best position (e.g. converting Steve Stone to a right winger). He made some great signings (Cooper, Collymore, Bohinen, Haaland), some decent ones (Bart-Williams, who would later prove influential, Tommy Wright, Lyttle), although later blotted his copybook with Jerkan and Silenzi. Even his resignation, when it came, was borne out of the realisation that the incoming board would sack him (I remember him suggesting that it would be like a turkey waiting for Christmas), so he preferred to go with dignity.

In second place would be Colin Calderwood. The first manager to clear out the rot that was setting in and achieve a level of stability (although arguably the first to be given enough time to do so), and importantly, he got us promotion, albeit at the second attempt (and to those of you who say it was lucky, I would argue that the table doesn’t lie: we were the second best team in the division after 46 games). Even better, despite dire football over the last two seasons, CC is now showing signs of wanting to play the game that Sir Brian would have intended.

Third place? Probably Paul Hart, although I get irritated by the pro-Hart propaganda that still circulates amongst fans (e.g. he was never backed by Doughty in the transfer market, and was forced to sell players). I cannot substantiate this, but someone who I knew at the time was mates with Nigel Doughty, and said that Hart was offered the money to sign Huckerby in the summer after the play-offs, but Hart turned it down, only to ask for it again three months later when his price had tripled! Also, Forest did not have to let Scimeca, Brennan, Lester and Hjelde go, but Hart made “take it or leave it” contract offers, and when they turned them down decided that the “fringe” kids (Thompson, Williams, Bopp et al) would be good enough, with the addition of Brynjar Gunnarsson and Danny Sonner. Make of all that what you will – the football at its best was stunning (Hart’s first game in charge at home to Sheffield United was unbelievable), but at its worst was torrid, and if Hart had remained in charge, I think Forest would have gone down that season.

Which brings me onto Joe Kinnear, who did a marvellous job in keeping Forest up, followed by a bloody awful job in taking us halfway down the following year. He scrapped the diamond formation which the players didn’t like, brought in the men to play 4-4-2 (Rogers, Impey, Barmby), and played to the strengths of the team (and how many times did Gareth Taylor score important goals that season?). If you were the chairman, wouldn’t you have given Kinnear a chance to keep up the good work? It all went wrong early on, with the ill-fated Capital One tour to the USA; then Rogers and Impey showed that, now that they had got fat juicy contracts, they weren’t concerned about performing on the pitch; finally the lack of competence on the pitch was coupled with a lack of discipline that would have made Sir Brian apopleptic.

I mention Sir Brian a lot because I feel it is important to recognise the legacy that he has left; in the same way that a young Jedi should always be mindful of the teachings of Master Yoda, a Forest supporter will only really be satisfied if the values of the Clough era are espoused: football played “the right way”, team spirit and discipline.

As for the rest of the managers, Stuart Pearce was never likely to save us from the drop; Dave “Harry” Bassett did a good job in getting us promoted and had the rug pulled from under his feet the following season (and would probably be number four in my list); Megson did good work off the pitch (trying to tackle the “me-me-me” culture that had clearly built up amongst the playing staff), although his team were consistently awful on the pitch; just don’t get me started on Fat Ron and David Platt…

Who do you rate as our best managers since Sir Brian?

Tags: colin calderwood, dave bassett, david platt, frank clark, gary megson, joe kinnear, managers, nottingham forest, paul hart, ron atkinson, sir brian clough, stuart pearce   Posted in General

Nottingham Evening Post: shoddy

I am sure that the satndard of wroting on this site is not infallible, but then Rahoul and I never made any claim to be professional writers or broadcasters.

However, if you are on the payroll of the Nottingham Evening Post, you are (presumably) supposed to be a professional journalist. Therefore, if the paymasters at that esteemed local rag read this, they would surely be disappointed at the standard of writing and factual accuracy:

• Headline: “Forest torn part by the Wolves“. Do they mean torn apart?

• About the first goal: “It took 14 minutes for Wolves to make the breakthrough, albeit in slightly fortunate circumstances as a cross from the rampaging Kightly took a kind deflection into the path of David Jones on the edge of the area.“. It was Sylvain Ebanks-Blake who played the ball in from the wing, and it was laid off quite tidily by Chris Iwelumo (not deflected fortuitously) into Jones’ stride.

• At 2-0 down: “It was barely a contest at this point, as Kightly twice came close to causing further torment, firing narrowly wide and then seeing a brave block from Bennett shut off his route to goal, while Sylvan Ebanks-Blake had the Wolves fans on their feet as he rifled a crisp effort just wide.” Hmmm… Kightly’s effort did not go wide but in fact rattled the crossbar, and I think they are actually referring to Ebanks-Blake’s effort that was (correctly) ruled out for offside. Oh, and unless I am very much mistaken, they have spelt “Sylvain” wrong.

• The fourth goal: “A minute later it was 4-0. Jarvis made it look easy as he won possession on the left and simply accelerated away and angled the ball to an unmarked Ebanks-Blake, who this time finished emphatically.” Would that be the goal that Chris Iwelumo scored? His strike partner caused some problems but failed to get on the scoresheet himself.

• Finally, for Forest’s goal: “Hennessey made a hash of punching a Martin corner clear, with the ball bouncing back off Kevin Foley into the back of the net, in a carbon copy of Morgan’s earlier own goal.” I admit that there was some confusion over which Wolves defender the ball came off, but it was credited as a Richard Stearman o.g.

I haven’t read the print version of this, so maybe the wise words of NEP journo Paul Taylor have been badly edited for the online edition. Whatever the source, this is just poorly written and factually inaccurate, which is not what I would hope for from a newspaper that seems to pride itself on being a source of Forest news and views. Naturally Mr Taylor and his colleagues at the NEP do have right of reply if they wish, either through the comments or at hello@eighteensixtyfive.co.uk.

Tags: nottingham evening post, nottingham forest, wolverhampton wanderers   Posted in General