4-4-2 for us today: Turner, Gunther, Morgan, Wilson, Lynch, Anderson, Moussi, Perchio (c), Cohen, Blackstock, Earnshaw. And one of the best endings to a game in years (after much tedium).
Tags: chris cohen, chris gunter, dexter blackstock, Guy Moussi, james perch, joel lynch, kelvin wilson, match report, nottingham forest, Paul Anderson, rob earnshaw, wes morgan Posted in
We played with a lot of endeavour but not much in the way of cutting edge against a high-flying and physical Wolves team. The team was Turner in goal, Lynch and Gunter at full-back with Wilson and Morgan in the middle. Perchio played the holding role with McGugan and Cohen in midfield, Anderson and McSheffrey on the wings and Robbie Earnshaw (is a red) as the lone striker.
Apologies for the poor audio quality – we were using someone else’s computer and it seems to have added a weird hiss and echo that I can’t get rid of, so sorry about that.
Tags: billy davies, joel lynch, match report, nottingham forest, podcast, wes morgan, wolverhampton wanderers Posted in
A patched up, young side versus an almost Premiership, almost top-of-the-table Birmingham side; and 2 points dropped.
Camp, Chambers, Morgan, Wilson, Heath, Anderson, Perchio, Thornhill, Cohen, Garner and Tyson in a 4-4-2.
Tags: birmingham city, match report, nottingham forest Posted in
Having reported the other night on how I couldn’t see how we would get a win, Saturday’s match was both a fillip and a kick in the nads teeth. It was good, because it proved to idiots like me that playing decent football can get you out of trouble, and yet it was bad because we remain rooted to the foot of the table.
In yesterday’s podcast, Rahoul and I couldn’t help but comment that Forest played well, but also that there was a nagging suspicion that if we didn’t score in the first 45, we would be in serious danger of losing. No surprises there – I suspect that everyone in the City Ground had that nagging doubt.
Despite Joe Garner’s heroics, ostensibly as a lone striker, but in reality with Lewis pushing up alongside him, the ball just wouldn’t go in. Garner hit the post after great work from McCleary, Lewis had an unsuccessful effort, and Chris Cohen had a 20-yarder saved (fairly comfortably, in all honesty). Garath McCleary, not content with being the most creative player on the park, also had a go himself, spanking it narrowly wide with his left foot, before James Perch made a great burst forward only to be denied by a slight deflection. When the whistle blew, everyone was wondering how Forest weren’t at least two or three goals to the good.
Half-time saw the unusual sight of a sub peeling off his tracksuit and warming up, and sure enough, Nathan Tyson took the place of Paul Anderson on the wing; Ando had apparently complained of tightness, so best not to risk it. Cardiff also made a substitution (their second of the game), with captain Darren Purse (whom we commented on in the podcast) being withdrawn. Tys played down the left, and generally looked like you would expect – a forward who hasn’t scored in a long time.
As usual these days, Forest were undone by a cheap goal conceded not long after the interval. Lewis made a necessary but clumsy challenge on Steve McPhail, and Ross McCormack made no mistake from twelve yards.
According to the precis in ITV’s “The Championship“, that was it – game over, and Cardiff were unlucky not to win by more. What lazy reporting: it neatly ignores the fact that although Forest were shell-shocked and poor for a good twenty minutes, they did come back into the match. McCleary had come agonisingly close; some decent work from Lewis gave him a shooting opportunity which went millimetres wide of the far post. Garner had, despite his best efforts, become peripheral and was replaced by Earnie, with Lewis dropping a bit deeper and Tys moving a bit further forward. The little man almost reaped quick rewards, with a one-on-one effort which Heaton in the Cardiff goal diverted around the far post. I think it was at this point (and despite a speculative volley from Earnie) that we realised that it wasn’t going to happen. There was still time for a rare decent cross from Tys to just elude Cohen at the back stick, thanks to an intervention from the Cardiff full-back.
A word on the crowd: we commented on the podcast that the Cardiff fans were great, and I have to confess that I did not hear the unsavoury chanting that came from the Lower Bridgford; I did hear unsavoury taunts from the A Block towards Dave Jones, but it was also clear that something had happened to prompt the abuse (I have read elsewhere that he directed a “Nescafe handshake” towards the Reds’ fans, rather than the “thumbs down” indicated on a Cardiff site). So credit to the away support for creating so much noise, less so for the nature of the noise.
It would also be remiss of me to ignore the telephone comments broadcast on Radio Nottingham when we were battling through the traffic on Wilford Lane: so many of them were “I have just listened to the match, and Calderwood has to go…”. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if I was at work and walked into another department’s team meeting and told them that they were doing X, Y and Z wrong, they would quite rightly tell me to piss off. If you didn’t go, you wouldn’t know!
To the CC-baiters: he couldn’t have done much more today, he picked a decent line-up, made the substitutions that he had to, and cannot be blamed for the profligacy in front of goal. I have said before that I don’t regard him as a saint, but he did little wrong in this match.
Winners and losers in the Forest team? Well, Garner certainly adds a welcome dimension to our play – despite not being the biggest, he is strong (held off Purse for most of the first half, prompting the Cardiff skipper to resort to foul means on several occasions), and he can hold the ball up well. However, a lot of players tend to get through their first game after injury on adrenaline, so I hope that he can sustain such a level of performance. Many (myself included) commented that the prospect of him linking with Earnie could significantly increase our chances of actually scoring once in a while. At the back, Wes had his best game in a long while, although his defensive partner “Casual Kelv” was poor again today and Luke Chambers (playing as a centre-half!) was perfectly competent and immediately looked more effective than his hapless skipper. Lewis was brilliant, but then disappeared for half-an-hour, and the decision tomove him back to a more conventional centre-mid position almost paid dividends as he got much more involved again. However, MOTM goes to the brilliant Garath McCleary, playing without fear and looking most likely to make things happen. The lad looked absolutely shattered at full-time.
As if the current position was not bad enough, the next few weeks see a horrid sequence of fixtures – we never win at Selhurst Park and are all dreading the trip to Pride Park, followed not long after by high-flying Birmingham City. However, a few weeks ago, I think we would have feared being the team against whom Derby break their duck, and now the tables are turned; in many senses, there is nothing left to lose, and if they play as well as they did this weekend, at least there is a shred of hope…
Tags: Cardiff City, dave jones, garath mccleary, joe garner, lewis mcgugan, match report, nottingham forest Posted in
Another dodgy referee, poor defending and good attacking play – but it all ends nil-nil.
| Smith | ||||
| Chambers | Morgan | Wilson (c) | Bennett | |
| Moussi | Cohen | Perchio | ||
| Tyson | Earnshaw | Martin |
Tags: charlton athletic, match report, nottingham forest, podcast Posted in
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
Tags: burnley, match report, nottingham forest, podcast Posted in
A bonus podcast as Rish managed to see the Wolverhampton Wanderers horror show.
Tags: match report, nottingham forest, podcast, wolverhampton wanderers, wolves Posted in
The second podcast of the season.
Forest lined up with Paul Smith, Luke Chambers, Ian Breckin, Wes Morgan and Julian Bennett, James Perchio, Guy Moussi, Chris Cohen with Gareth McCleary, Rob Earnshaw and Lee Martin up-front.
Overall an excellent game with lots of fast-paced attacking intentions and the welcome return of Nathan Tyson.
Tags: match report, nottingham forest, podcast, watford Posted in
Forest:
Smith
Chambers Morgan Wilson (c) Bennett
Moussi Perch
Cohen McGugan Davies
Earnshaw
Subs: Sinclair (McGugan, 84), McLeary (Davies, 90+1). Not used: Breckin, Thornhill, Roberts
Reading (4-4-2): Hahnemann; Rosenior, Sonko, Ingimarsson, S Hunt; Kebe, Matejovsky (Cisse, 42), Harper (c), Convey; Doyle, Lita. Subs: Long, Pearce, Andersen, Kelly.
Firstly, apologies for taking so long to write this – hopefully in the meantime, you have listened to and enjoyed our podcast. All in all, this was a very encouraging display from the Reds, where they tried to play the game in the right way, but still showed a bit of physicality to keep the Royals on their toes.
The outstanding players were Perchio and MOTM Moussi, both of whom took a few minutes to get going (and in the process gave the ball away a few times), but really held firm against a decent Reading side. Highlight for Perchio was a series of three sliding tackles in succession, each time getting up quickly and chasing the ball down; it is difficult to pick an individual highlight for the Moose, but he stood out for receiving the ball, making himself a yard of space and trying to move it on, either by passing it or running with it himself. Moose also came close with three decent long-rangers, thwarted by defenders or Hahnemann.
There were few clear-cut chances, and by now you will all know about Paul Smith’s outstanding save from Doyle’s header (not Lita, as I mistakenly said in the podcast). Smudge also made an important, if less spectacular, save in the first half, holding Kebe’s shot when Lita was closing in. For Forest, I could see the logic of playing Cohen on the right and Davies on the left, but I didn’t think it worked in the first half (shown after just a few seconds when the left-footed Cohen failed to get a strong-enough shot in from the right of the goal). To their credit, the ex-Yeovil boys made a much better stab of it in the second half.
Forest’s best chance fell to Earnshaw towards the end, when he proved that defenders are scared of pace. After running across them, he couldn’t quite shape his body right, probably because he was knackered. By that stage, both teams seemed to have slowed down a bit, although the Royals still gave us a fright with three corners in succession at the death. It wouldn’t be the same if Forest didn’t make us sweat a bit though, would it?
Both managers seemed satisfied, and I suspect both sets of fans are as well…
Tags: Guy Moussi, james perch, match report, nottingham forest, reading, Robert Earnshaw Posted in
Our very first podcast for the new season!
Forest lined up with Smith in goal, a Meadows-dominated back four of Chambers, Morgan, Wilson and Bennett, two central midfielders, Perchio and Moussi, Cohen, McGugan and Davies as the attacking midfielders and Earnshaw up-front on his own.
Overall a creditable result and a decent performance.
We hope you enjoy the podcast!
Tags: match report, nottingham forest, podcast, reading Posted in
