Posted February 28th, 2009
by Rish
Great result today – I managed to listen to a few minutes of the post-match reaction on Radio Nottingham, and I was very pleased to hear that the confidence grew, and the style of football was better. We said after the Derby match that this team look far more effective when they keep the ball on the ground.
Billy Davies’ first month went like a dream, his second was a bit of a nightmare (admittedly not all his fault), let’s hope that the worst is over. Come on Billy, prove the doubters (and that includes me) wrong.
Tags: billy davies, lewis mcgugan, nottingham forest, reading Posted in News, Opinion
Posted February 27th, 2009
by Rish
Before I start, I am not saying that Davies should be sacked or is not fit to manage this club – it is far too early to resort to such mean-spirited words…
Those of you who listened to the post-Derby podcast will have noticed that we weren’t happy, and that we were laying the blame at least partly at the manager’s door. There is much talk about the “acquisition committee”, and this has been started (at least partly) by the manager’s decision to publicly bemoan the lack of transfer activity.
We do desperately need new players, and I do agree that in an ideal world, the manager should be trusted to make the acquisitions himself. I can also understand why Messrs Doughty and Arthur are reluctant to relinquish the purse strings after poor signings made by Platt, Hart, Kinnear and Megson.
<RANT>The trouble I have with Billy Davies is that his world revolves around him, even down to referring to himself in the third person. The trouble I have is that he slags off the players in public one day, saying that they are not proud to wear the shirt, then after the Derby match states that it is not their fault as they are putting in lots of effort. He then says that he will sleep easy at night as it is not his fault, then he says that people should blame him because he is the manager. He basically states that there is little point turning up for the matches against teams in the top half of the table as we cannot compete. He, amazingly, even turns down the Megson-esque road of challenging the fans to pick a better team with the resources we have:
If there are any fans out there who can come up with a better formation, who can find the winning formula, they are welcome to come in and advise us.
Well Billy, I doubt you will read this, and I also doubt whether you would read it if I put it in an envelope and posted to you care of NFFC, but maybe you could play this team at Reading:
Smith
Moloney Morgan Chambers Heath
Cohen
Anderson McGugan McCleary
Earnshaw Tyson
See?
- It’s 4-4-2, of sorts, rather than the unimpressive 5-3-2 of recent weeks.
- Play a right back, rather than having a centre-half haplessly continuing out of position; you don’t have to worry about him; with the exception of one costly mistake against QPR, young Brendan has looked more than capable so far (as I write this, I wonder – is Moloney due a suspension this week? I cannot find it anywhere on the OS).
- Breckin looked knackered last week, so give Luke Chambers a chance in his natural position – he has looked decent enough in the snatches that he has played there before.
- Perch and Moose are out, so put our most industrious man in the heart of midfield.
- Play Lewis, our most creative player, further up the pitch where he can hopefully see more of the ball and weave some magic.
- Rather than complain about not having a left-winger, play a winger there!
- Stop telling the defenders to hoof it up to a whippet and a terrier. Neither of them are target men, and against giant centre-halves, they are not going to get much change.
Of course, I don’t expect Ando or Earnie to last ninety minutes, so we may have to rely on the likes of Matt Thornhill and Joe Garner to come off the bench. The squad may be half-fit and short on numbers, but if you keep asking players to do stuff that they are not comfortable with, you are going to struggle to get results from them (and God knows, we saw enough of that under Calderwood). </RANT>
I do want Billy to succeed, really I do. For all the home truths that he is trying to state, I just don’t think his charm offensive has worked so far, on or off the pitch.
Tags: billy davies, brendan moloney, derby county, garath mccleary, lewis mcgugan, luke chambers, mark arthur, nigel doughty, nottingham forest Posted in General, Opinion
Posted February 26th, 2009
by Rahoul Baruah
Every Forest fan’s favourite alces steps up his return from injury. It’s just like a new signing. Or something.
Michael Tonge and Ched Evans are linked with us (the latter following a successful loan spell at Norwich). It would be just like signing a new midfielder and a new striker!
Meanwhile, Grant Holt hits a dry spell – he’s just like an old player.
Mark Bright’s not keen on The Damned United (I loved the book, despite the Clough familiy’s misgivings).
Oh, and we are anti-cursed (David Twat a success?), as well as being fed up at how shit we are. The latter sums up how a lot of people feel about football in general, not just Forest.
Tags: brian clough, ched evans, david twat, grant holt, Guy Moussi, mark bright, michael tonge Posted in News
Posted February 22nd, 2009
by Rahoul Baruah
Various random posts, trying to get a feel for the opinions of the Tricky Trees.
Davies has upset Pemberton and the Academy staff?
It’s almost the same team that beat Man City.
Morgan puts Commons on his arse.
We need patience.
Davies out!
Fans these days are too fickle.
Paul Smith is hopeless.
Speculation about Marthur.
Are there three worse teams than us?
Our best won’t be good enough.
Who was chucking stuff from the Trent End?
Robbie Savage is a prick.
I quit.
We have no leaders.
Get out you clown!
Doughty and Arthur are doing a great job.
Did Billy do his due diligence?
Billy didn’t even mention the poor performance.
Is the squad together?
Tags: billy davies, john pemberton, kris commons, mark arthur, nigel doughty, paul smith, robbie savage, wes morgan Posted in General, News, Opinion
Posted February 21st, 2009
by Rahoul Baruah
A pretty downbeat podcast; following Billy’s interview in midweek we were waiting to see what effect his words had on our young, depleted, squad. And we saw the result today; in a side with two surprise returns, but bereft of confidence and ideas.
Smith, Chambers, Morgan, Breckin, Heathy, Anderson, McGugan, Perchio (c), Cohen, Tyson, Earnshaw.
Standard Podcast [16:04m]:
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download (439)
Tags: billy davies, derby county, nigel clough, nottingham forest Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts
Posted February 19th, 2009
by Rahoul Baruah
UPDATE: I think I’m over this now – still not sure what that interview was supposed to achieve but I’m sure Billy has a masterplan in mind. Bring on the Sheep!
The knives are out. Billy Davies, Mark Arthur, Nigel Doughty; no-one escapes the wrath of the Forest fan in the run up to yet another game against the Sheep.
And the source of this malaise?
The fact that our small, injury-ravaged League One squad is still struggling in the Championship, was not strengthened during the transfer window and the fabled new-manager effect simply has not happened (or at least was very short-lived).
Before Calderwood went I said a change (of some kind, not necessarily of manager) was needed; at the very least a big centre-half, a big centre-forward and someone to offer some leadership. Now, in February, we have a new manager but no new players. Fair play to Billy – watch him from the touchlines and he is offering the leadership. He went for Rob Jones to play at the back and Dele Adebola up-front. So it looks, on paper, like he had identified the same weaknesses as me.
But we didn’t get either and the consensus is that this is the board’s fault. Could be, I don’t know enough about what went on. Is Jones worth more than £600000 or is he another Lynch? Should anyone ever pay any money for Adebola? Were the board just tight or did they just not want to pay over the odds for players who may not be good enough to keep us up (can you tell which one of those two I feel falls into that category?) If they were tight then it’s definitely a false economy – League One will cost far more than the extra £400000 that was reportedly the difference between our valuation of Jones and Hibs’ (although I’ve also seen it written that we offered £1m for him).
However, for whatever reason, we didn’t bring anyone in during the window. So we have to make do with what we’ve got (and what we can loan in).
And this is where my problems begin. We know that they are young and inexperienced. We know that the Championship is a big step up from League One. We know that we have an injury crisis on, forcing us to play players who aren’t first choices. But that is the hand we have – unless we loan four or five players in tomorrow, then that is the hand we will have when playing Derby. We are where we are.
So why slag them off Billy? We all know that confidence is a vital component of success in football. Do you honestly believe that telling the only players you have available that they will never make it at this level is going to make them perform better this weekend?
In goal we’ve got Smith. The best thing that Calderwood did this season (apart from getting us to play some pretty football that had been sorely lacking for quite a few years) was bring in Lee Camp. Whilst some people think Campo is the second coming of Peter Shilton, I’m not so convinced. The defence needed a kick up the arse and Campo gave it to them. But in terms of actual keeping ability there’s not so much in it (Smith’s terrible kicking aside) – witness Campo’s flapping at a cross when we played against QPR.
At centre-half we’re looking OK. Breckin and Wesley are the first choice pairing; having Breckin back in the fold is a definite bonus, but Calderwood wasn’t lying when he said the old man isn’t fit enough to play every week. Wes has been immense after a dodgy start to the season. Chambers is an able deputy (note, this is centre-half) but Wilson appears to be getting worse under Davies, and he wasn’t playing great to start with.
At full-back is where the real trouble now lies. Moloney has been a breath of fresh air this season, but Davies does not appear to trust the youngster to do the job. Leaving Chambers to play at right-back and we all know it’s just not his position. Things are worse on the left with Bennett out injured – leaving Heath who tries hard but isn’t ready, Wilson, who looks like someone playing out of position (funny that) or Lynch. Nuff said.
In midfield, it’s no secret that I am a great fan of Perchio – he’s not the best defensive midfielder in the world but it’s a vital (unsung) role and he does it well. The Moose should be back soon and he had a great start to the season, but seemed to go missing for a few games before his injury. Cohen is many people’s favourite for player of the season – certainly his work-rate is incredible. Thornhill is probably my favourite of the youngsters – intelligent, beautifully timed runs with excellent passing. And then there’s Lewis McGugan. Probably our most talented player, certainly the one we could sell for the most money. But he seems to have gone backwards recently. Billy plays him a bit deeper than Colin did and he looks like he’s struggling with it – and when Lewis plays badly, Forest plays badly.
And then, up-front. Earnie’s out injured and this is a big loss, as our only Championship-quality player. Tyson works his socks off but isn’t an out-and-out goal-scorer. And he can’t do it all by himself. Leaving Garner. The target for Davies’ post-match interview and another youngster with obvious talent but not necessarily the work-rate or application Billy wants. From the little we’ve seen of him so far, he appears to be one of those who does nothing for 89 minutes then produces a piece of magic that turns the game. However, I can’t see much more magic coming from him under this manager.
We’re in the shit. We know that. The players know that. The manager knows that. The board (probably) know that. And when you’re up against it you need to be pulling together. Unity can make up for a number of deficiencies. Unfortunately, I don’t see much of that around the City Ground at the moment. Sorry to be so gloomy, but things aren’t looking good.
Tags: billy davies, brendan moloney, doom and gloom, Guy Moussi, ian breckin, james perchio, joe garner, joe heath, joel lynch, kelvin wilson, Lee Camp, lewis mcgugan, luke chambers, mark arthur, matt thornhill, nathan tyson, nigel doughty, paul smith, rob earnshaw, wes morgan Posted in Opinion
Posted February 15th, 2009
by Rish
“Psycho! Psycho! Psycho!”, “Nigel Nigel, Nigel Nigel”, “Oh, Teddy Teddy, Teddy Teddy Teddy Teddy Sheringham”, “Ian Ian Ian Woan, Ian Woan Ian Woan”, “There’s only one Stevie Chettle”, “Norman, show us your bum”…
I started going to Forest in 1990, and one of the best rituals was the team running out to the Robin Hood them, and the Trent End regaling each player in turn with a little song.Those days seem to be long gone at the City Ground; although there are still cheers and cries of “You Reds!” as the team run out, the players are greeted by polite applause, rather than individual adulation. There are of course, the notable exceptions of Nathan Tyson and Robbie Earnshaw (who’s a Red, you know); this season’s choice as “fans’ favourite” fell to Lee Camp, but even he didn’t seem to get a song.
Notts County’s Gavin Strachan writes an excellent blog for the BBC, and this week he was writing about the “Get On” campaign to get fans writing new chants. While the advancement of English language skills is undoubtedly a worthy cause (although the Get On website ironically takes its time to state the purpose of the campaign), it got me thinking: why don’t we chant for our players anymore? Is it down to the invasion of the “prawn sandwich” brigade pricing out “real” fans? Or is it that Forest fans are just apathetic towards the players who have donned the red shirt during the painful demise of the club over the last ten years? Methinks the latter, but in that case, now that we are apparently on the up, why are there no chants for potential heroes such as Lewis, Joe Garner, Garath McCleary and Chris Cohen (well, none that I have heard, anyway)?
So, now is your chance. Submit a chant to the campaign, and once you have done that, submit it to us at eighteensixtyfive, either using the comments form, or by email if you are shy! If we like yours, we might even make some audio clips of it and include them on our podcasts.
Tags: chris cohen, garath mccleary, gavin strachan, get on, joe garner, lewis mcgugan, nottingham forest Posted in General
Posted February 14th, 2009
by Rish
I never got a chance to post on the QPR match, and have just read the report of the Birmingham defeat (it is actually my local match, but I couldn’t make it due to a combination of the ticket price and some other stuff).
I just wanted to air some thoughts:
- Paul Smith is far from perfect, but a lot of Forest fans would do well to stop laying into him at every opportunity
- Lee Camp is far from perfect, and a lot of Forest fans would do well to realise that. He has a track record of being mardy, and it was not especially becoming to hear him issue a “come and get me” plea on Radio Nottingham afterwards (how would you react if you heard a Forest player doing the same?)
- I commented after the Sheffield Wednesday match on Billy Davies’ “rent-a-formation” performance in that match; in the last two matches, we have played 5-3-2 (admittedly this was partly because we didn’t have that many fit players). Make your own judgement.
- The reporter on Radio 5live said that today, Forest were “dreadfully negative”. Despite playing some enterprising stuff this season (without getting the results), some fans continued to use the previously dour style of football as a stick to beat Colin Calderwood. I wonder if the fans will be similarly intolerant if Billy Davies’ teams fail to play the beautiful game?
- We are worryingly close to the relegation zone, and other teams have games in hand on us. We need some more players!
Tags: billy davies, birmingham city, colin calderwood, Lee Camp, nottingham forest, paul smith, qpr Posted in Match Reports, Opinion
Posted February 11th, 2009
by Rahoul Baruah
Julian Bennett makes the most of his time out injured, while Nigel Doughty does good with his millions.
Fans’ favourite Paul Hart’s tenure at Pompey may be a short one.
Viv Anderson’s not happy about England’s friendly in Spain.
And lastly, Robbie Earnshaw (is a red) is about to restart training and hopes to be ready to play again very soon.
UPDATE: Oh and I forgot. Unlike us, who thought he was the “worst ref in history”, Paulo Sousa reckons the referee made only one mistake – and that was missing a foul on Campo in the build-up to our equaliser. Which would explain why the goal happened in bullet time.
Also need to mention that both me and nffcblog were tweeting during the game. To all the Smith haters I give you this.
Tags: julian bennett, nigel doughty, paul hart, rob earnshaw, viv anderson Posted in News
Posted February 7th, 2009
by Rahoul Baruah
Men against boys and the injury crisis continues:
Smith, Chambers, Morgan (c), Wilson, Moloney, Heath, McGugan, Cohen, Thornhill, Garner, Tyson.
Standard Podcast [17:02m]:
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download (332)
Tags: nottingham forest, Queen's Park Rangers Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts
