After an almost eleven hour day at work, and pretty much running to the City Ground from town, I arrived fifteen minutes late to hear a cheers quickly muted – Forest had scored! Oh, it was offside (incidentally, Steve Cotterill said that he looked at replays, and it wasn’t).

To be honest, that was the only highlight of the first half and we missed it. I was beginning to wonder if it was worth all my efforts to get there, and when the fourth official held up the board to how one minute’s stoppage time, I and many others pleaded with the ref to put us out of our misery.

There was an interesting tactical change at half-time, as Radi was withdrawn in favour of a slightly-more-slimline Andy Reid. However, rather than covering the left of midfield, Reidy played behind Tudders up the middle and Robbie Findley shifted onto the left wing. It took the little American a long-time to get involved out there, but the rotund experienced Irishman was immediately at the heart of the action, and looked much more comfortable there than he has done when on the left of midfield.

Reading’s defence looked a bit more rattled now, and the highlight of the first half came when Lewis McGugan (who had otherwise had a poor game) played the ball down the channels, Luke Chambers made an overlapping run and played a decent ball into Marcus Tudgay, who controlled, swivelled and beat Federici in the Reading goal. A well-worked, team effort.

Forest improved as the half went on, and certainly looked the more dangerous team; Reading were certainly not helped by the bumbling Mathieu Manset, who lumbered about and seemingly handled at every opportunity. Robbie Findley started to find space down the left and used his pace to good effect, before he was withdrawn for Brendan Moloney. Now Forest had a centre-half at right-back, a right-back on the right of midfield, and another right-back on the left of midfield. Blimey.

There was time for a late scare – Reading had thrown on Noel Hunt and Simon Church in search of the equaliser, and the latter had a late header from Jimmy Kebé’s cross which drew a great save from Lee Camp. It was pretty much the only time that the Forest defence had allowed a cross to come in.

A 1-0 victory, and many congratulations on a hard-fought three points. Kudos must go to Andy Reid, who performed well and also showed a lot of quality in his set-piece delivery (Lewis’ dead ball deliveries were once again below-par), and Marcus Tudgay got better as the game went on – especially as the lone frontman with Reidy as his foil. That man Joel Lynch once again gets my man of the match award, for another impeccable display, and even captain Luke Chambers had to admit that it will be hard to dislodge Lynchio from his berth at centre-half. However, much credit must also go to Steve Cotterill – there is no way that his predecessor would have won this match, either through defensive organisation, tactical switches, or closing the game down to protect the lead.

However, on a good night for the Reds, there was only real story in football, and it happened up the road in Doncaster. I am sure I am not the only football fan who welled up upon hearing Billy Sharp‘s story, especially when seeing the picture of him celebrating his goal. Billy, your story is simultaneously distressing and inspiring, and I am sure that you, dear reader, will join me in offering condolences and best wishes to the Sharp family.