Firstly the good news: skipper Paul “Kenna” McKenna’s injury does not require surgery and so there is a glimmer of hope that he may return before the season ends (which would be especially useful if we end up in the dreaded play-offs).
In the meantime, the sponsorship deal with Victor Chandler has been extended by two more years (with Victor himself rather relieved that Newcastle’s form means that Forest are unlikely to win the league).
Now the bad, if not entirely unexpected news: after the scuffles at Pride Park, both Forest and Derby have been fined £45,000 by the FA (mysteriously no sanctions against Jay McEveley, who was at the centre of affairs both times). Mark Arthur is “surprised at the severity of the fine”.
So as not to end on a sour note, here is some footage of new boy Georgie Boyd strutting his stuff:
Nigel Clough has denied any wrongdoing following on from the handbags at the end of Saturday’s match, and appears to be asking for leniency as it is a local derby (not sure that this is an argument that will curry any favour with the FA). However, Billy Davies has continued with his claims and made an official complaint (involving lawyers) against Sir Brian’s son. I saw some footage on East Midlands Today, and while it wouldn’t stand up in a court of law, it doesn’t look too clever on Nigel’s part (I have had a look but cannot find the footage online – sorry)…
In the meantime, Garry Birtles has a grumble about Forest not adding any players to the squad (no, not even a left-back), while there are vague rumours circulating that Nigel Doughty may have had enough of January inactivity and will “restructure” the acquisitions panel.
Finally, wee Billy and Chris Cohen are nominated for Manager and Player of the Month for January – results announced on Saturday.
I was just about to post some thoughts on the match, but got sidetracked by Billy accusing Nigel Clough of assaulting him during Saturday’s match:
“I told him I wouldn’t have minded him doing it to my face but to do it when my back was turned was cowardly,” an incensed Davies said. “That’s why I never shook his hand at the end. I said to him on the touchline he was out of order because when I was in the middle of that scrum he came from behind and kneed me in the back of the leg. I felt the blow on the back of my right leg and it was deliberate.
“He tried to claim it was an accident but he knows, as well as I know, that it was no accident. He was trying to be clever and he did exactly what he was trying to do, but to do it behind my back was a bit cowardly and that was my disappointment.”
The FA are to investigate, and Nigel has refused to comment. Amazing stuff…
On the match itself, I was otherwise engaged so couldn’t even listen in, but I am going to be honest and agree with Rahoul; I had a gut feeling that this might have been the one that got away. Put simply, I think it meant more to Derby this time, they needed a result to boost morale, and when you are having a disappointing time, you naturally focus upon games like this.
That’s not to say that I don’t mind losing to Derby, of course I do, and I am terribly disappointed that the Reds never really got going on the day. However, if this is the pinnacle of Derby’s season (as Robbie Savage’s comments and the DVD release suggest), and they only end up scraping safety (or worse), then more fool them. But I won’t be crying over this one if we end up in the top two, or in the play-offs (even if we don’t go up).
I certainly hope that the noises from the dressing room about learning from the experience hold true (we were always going to get complacent at some stage), and I found it interesting that Billy said (in the audio link) that he picked the wrong team (whether that is an admission of culpability or trying to protect the players is another matter).
Let’s look at the bigger picture, we have been THE best team in the country recently, and it would take a dramatic loss of form for us not to be one of the top three or four teams in the division over the course of the season. I was Mr Cynical for a long time, but it is hard not to be so confident when you have watched this team over the last few months…
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In other news, it comes as no surprise that we haven’t signed Victor Moses, who has gone to Wigan; unfortunately there are rumours that Nicky Shorey will also be staying in the Premier League, with Fulham keen to take him on loan.
The Daily Star have noticed that the football season has begun, running a season preview – and they have also just found out that we once won a few of trophies.
The word is still that David Platt is favourite for the Notts job. Do they never learn?
Speaking of ex-managers, Colin Calderwood is plotting our downfall. Apparently. While Marlon Harewood reckons the Geordies aren’t the crisis club they appeared to be. But Ned Kelly reckons the international break has done us good and we are ready for them.
Posted September 30th, 2009by Rahoul BaruahNo Comments »
The talk from the City Ground is all about our home form.
Lewis McGugan talks about his early return from injury – and how we now have the confidence to build an unbeaten home run, to match our away record.
Chris Gunter (who makes the Football League Team of the Week, thanks Saturday’s clean sheet and his goal) agrees and wants that run to start tonight against Scunthorpe. The Iron will be without Gary Hooper and David Mirfin and it seems likely that we will be missing little Robbie Earnshaw.
Oh, and one more thing. There was some football match in Wales last night.
I was recently contacted by Joris from the Dutch football site Doing the 116. He wanted to know a little bit about the rivalry between us and our stripey neighbours from across the river. He was obviously aware that the real rivalry for most Reds lies with the woolly ones, but was fascinated by the history of two such old clubs. You can view the article here, but as it is in Dutch, you may prefer the Google translation.
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Thanks to NFFCblog for drawing my attention to the Billy Davies interview on Radio 5live last night. As with all iPlayer content, I would imagine it will be live for a week or so.
Billy states the Forest case, and does it in a calm and factual manner, which was welcome in light of the pasting that the national meeja (the BBC included) have given Tys and the Reds over the last couple of days. In fact he implores the FA to look at the facts, and watch the videos available not just from this match but from the previous encounter (apparently there are many available on Youtube to back up Tys’ case). Billy also not unreasonably states that it “is the intervention of coaching staff and players that caused the flashpoint”, while praising both sets of fans.
You can also read Billy’s opinion in The Guardian, although as we have come to expect the headline is lurid and suggests that the manager is trying to defend Tys for war crimes or something.
In the meantime, the Derby Evening Telegraph has attempted to justify the fighting that was instigated by the Rams’ players and fans, with factual inaccuracy (as pointed out in the many comments made by Reds’ fans).
Finally, it is very rare that I publicly encourage others to do naughty things, but if you go to their home page, you can vote for a certain Kris Commons as Derby’s man of the match on Saturday – go and do it. Now!!
I have just come across this article from When Saturday Comes which is the first non-Forest site to actually look at things in a fair manner. Well worth a read.
Posted August 29th, 2009by Rahoul Baruah6 Comments »
Good grief. What a game.
Firstly, sorry – no tweets during the game as O2 decided to fail big-style. But even if I had a signal, I doubt I would have had time to report much as it was pretty action packed.
Sport Billy picked a side packed with forwards (unsurprisingly), lining up as follows:
Campo,
Gunter and Cohen at full-back,
Morgan and Chambers at centre-half,
McKenna and Majewski in the middle,
McGoldrick, Garner and Tyson playing just behind Dexter Blackstock up-front.
A truly fantastic first half strike by Madge put us ahead within two minutes and we were three up by half time. A fightback by the Sheep had us nervy and worried throughout the second but Billy’s antics gave the team enough “fight” to hold on for three points. And then Nathan Tyson sparks a near riot after the final whistle (we <3 you Tys) prompting an FA investigation.
If you weren't there, what were you doing? This was unmissable!
UPDATE (Sunday 30th August 19:30): from the reports I've been reading (from people who weren't at the other end of the pitch) and having seen this video of the incident, I’m now of the opinion that Tys was trying to run between A Block and Victor’s Veranda. This was somewhat foolish as he did run in front of the Derby fans, but I don’t think he was trying to go anywhere near them (he is clearly the right side of the six yard line). However, he was then pushed by the Derby player, which is what kicked the whole incident off. If the Derby player hadn’t reacted this would have been little different to Savage’s celebration last year (which didn’t bother me – surely players are allowed to celebrate a local derby victory).
Reports of Savage inciting our crowd before the game seem to be balls and griping on our part; at least from the videos I’ve seen.
The ever-excellent NFFCBlog has an alternative video of the incident here.
After Tuesday night’s decent (somewhat unexpected) cup win against Middlesbrough, some eagle-eyed fans have noticed that there is a rather big match this weekend:
Derby have moved to cover their shortage of fit strikers by signing veteran striker Paul Dickov
Former Forest man Kristian Commons hopes to make himself even less popular at the City Ground
Billy Davies thinks that the midfield will be key to success this season (which will be useful as the strikers aren’t scoring enough and we don’t have any defenders!)
Young full-back Joe Heath is returning early to the City Ground – but unfortunately he won’t be able to ease our defensive worries as he is crocked as well
Don’t forget that the match kicks off at 1pm; we will be wolfing down some bacon cobs on our way to the ground and celebrating/whinging in the podcast afterwards.
Colin Calderwood and Johnny Metgod are on the move – CC may be going to Chesterfield while Metgod is looking to join Nigel down the road.
Sport Billy wants to tie Chris Cohen down to a longer contract.
And he’s reportedly offering £1.5m for Donny defender Matthew Mills – although Brum are apparently going to offer £4m. He better be bloody good for that sort of money.
Dele Adebola has been offered a two year contract with “vast sums of money” to come and join us – which has discouraged our Brian and moneybags QPR from chasing his signature.
And lastly West Brom’s Tony Mowbray joins the Sheep, Dirty Leeds and us in the race for Rob Jones‘ signature (remembering that Mowbray brought Jones to Hibs in the first place).
