Last night was a first for me.
In an email conversation with Rish I actually used the “R word”.
Relegation.
There, I used it again.
It’s only nine games into the season. And I always try to stay positive; look on the bright side.
Support the team; even when they’re flash bastards more interested in boozing and their fat pay-packets than playing football (see a couple of years ago).
Support the manager; even when he’s a fish-faced gibbon who thinks changing formation twenty-six times during ninety minutes will win you a game (see a few years before that).
But, as Forest fans, we have grown accustomed to what a relegation dogfight looks like. It must be every other season that we battle against the drop. Sometimes we pull through, sometimes we don’t. But, believe me, we are all very familiar with the stench of relegation form. And sadly, that is what we are now faced with.
From the home games I have seen, we have played well but been undone by dodgy refereeing. From the away game match reports I have read (Wolves excepted), we have played well but been undone by a freak goal.
Bad luck you could say. You can’t legislate for a poor official. What can you do with a freak deflection?
At the risk of repeating what NFFCBlog has already said, you make your own luck.
Were Manchester United lucky every week when getting last minute goals or penalty decisions? No, it was a refusal to believe that they wouldn’t win; leading them to push on when things looked hopeless.
Are the referees biased against us or just lacking in some competence? It’s not the former and if it’s the latter then it applies equally well to both teams (even if a couple of teams have tried to use this to their advantage whilst we, rightly, try to stay on our feet).
Why do we keep having freak deflections, odd bounces, weird goals conceded? Well, whip in a fast low cross into a crowded box, with a defence that is nervous and hesitant and anything could happen. Do it a lot and someone will stick a leg out in a panic and there you have it.
How do we turn this around?
Sack the manager? It’s too early for that. He’s made a grave mistake in not strengthening the defence, but it was understandable. Firstly, our defence was fantastic last season. Secondly, the nature of the Championship is different to League One. To survive here you need goals. Lots of them. Hence the attacking purchases. Unfortunately, they’re not scoring and now the manager is, unsurprisingly, worried about the defence.
Sack the board? To be honest, I think they have learnt from their (many) mistakes. I still have very little trust for them, generally dislike everything I have read about one of the board members; but as Mike Ashley and that blokey at Hearts show, just bringing in a rich owner isn’t enough. You need someone with business sense and enough feeling for the traditions of the place; and there’s no denying that Doughty has those.
Sack the players? They’re not that bad. I worry about not scoring. I worry about the lack of confidence in defence. I worry about the injuries. But most of all I worry about the lack of a voice on the field.
In this situation, what you need is someone to lift heads, to organise, to give players a rollicking when they make mistakes and encouragement when they do well. And we don’t have anyone like that. The best thing that that man from Crewe ever did was bring in John Terry; simply because he gave us organisation and a voice on the pitch when the rest of the team was floundering. That one loan signing gave the team belief that we could stay up and turned that season around.
I didn’t see him play but I’ve not heard anything to suggest that Joel Lynch is that man. Better get scouting, Colin, and fast.
