eighteensixtyfive

Nottingham Forest 1 – 0 Swansea City: match report

A six-pointer against the team in fourth place. Lose and their game in hand puts them in pole position. Win and we gain some breathing space.

However, Billy was forced into some changes today;

Wilson and Earnshaw had both injured themselves in training yesterday, meaning we essentially ended up playing our away side at home. New boy Georgie Boyd slotted in on the left wing, finally allowing left-footer Chris Cohen to take the left-back slot. But disaster struck early as McKenna sustained a serious injury, only to be replaced by Lewis McGugan who had a point to prove.

And if you’re travelling to Preston next Saturday, you can book yourself a coach; and if you’re making a night of it you can find yourself a hotel (or travel to Bristol in April).

 

 Standard Podcast [19:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (262)

Tags: chris cohen, chris gunter, dexter blackstock, george boyd, Guy Moussi, Lee Camp, lews mcgugan, luke chambers, Paul Anderson, paul mckenna, radoslaw majewski, wes morgan   Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts

Nottingham Forest 1 – 0 Middlesboro: match report and podcast

6 points from two tricky games, and a record of nine consecutive home victories. Crisis?

The now traditional home 4-4-2 saw us line up as follows:

Scrappy, physical, untidy. These are all just words. As are three points and clean sheet.

 

 Standard Podcast [17:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (342)

Tags: chris cohen, chris gunter, dexter blackstock, james perch, kelvin wilson, Lee Camp, middlesboro, nottingham forest, Paul Anderson, paul mckenna, radoslaw majewski, rob earnshaw, wes morgan   Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts

Nottingham Forest 1 – 0 Sheffield United: good triumphs over evil

A welcome victory against a team that we NEVER seem to beat (albeit one who are on a poor run away from home). We have now won eight on the trot at home!

Billy Davies reverted to the more normal home line-up:

Campo

Gunter       Morgan    Wilson       Perchio

Cohen       Majewski      McKenna       Anderson

Blackstock     Earnshaw

Forest started well, with Chrissy Cohen coming in from the right to fire wide from the edge of the box, and it wasn’t long before we took the lead. Raddy’s corner was headed in by Ando (Ando?!) and little Robbie Earnshaw poked home on the goal-line. Only four minutes on the clock!

Forest continued their good play, with a return for some of the one-touch “champagne” football, although we did not realyl work their keeper enough. Raddy wasted a good opportunity on the counter-attack after a superb through ball from Chrissy Cohen, as the young Pole took one touch too many rather than having the shot, and Dex directed the ball straight at Mark Bunn in the Blades’ goal from another corner.

What was starting to take the eye was the rather, erm, physical approach that our opposition were taking. Rahoul couldn’t make it, so when he asked for a text update, I replied that they had “reverted to type i.e. dirty”. Darius Henderson is your archetypal “big strong lad up front”, and he is not scared to use his physical presence. I am not quite sure how he escaped a booking for repeated fouls in the first half, although the only caution in the first half was to Raddy, who committed a late tackle and chopped his man in the process. I am not quite sure how their centre-half escaped a red card for a challenge on the edge of the box which looked two-footed to me (reminded me of Garath McCleary’s deserved red on Saturday), but I sit in the Trent End, so perhaps any readers who are up in Victor’s Veranda could help me out?

Sheffield United almost scored when Nyron Nosworthy’s deep cross was misjudged by Perchio and forced Campo into a late intervention to palm the ball away from the far corner, but Forest should have scored with the best move of the match; excellent play from Gunts and Chrissy set up Ando just inside the box, but his first-time shot was just over when should really have hit the target. I was hoping that we wouldn’t regret the missed opportunities.

The second half started with the dismissal of Darius Henderson. I don’t know what for as I watched the ball, but two or three Forest players went mental at the ref and the linesman was flagging. Oddly enough, the ref produced the red card without consulting the lino, even though he clearly didn’t see the incident but his assistant did. Seems strange to me, although Henderson didn’t seem to argue too much.

I have to say that ten-man Sheffield United were excellent in the second-half. I guess the red card galvanised them, and their workrate was exceptional. However, they ratcheted up the dirtiness, and the referee failed to show any real authority. As an example, Lee Williamson fouled his man, and then kicked the ball away; I think the booking was for dissent, rather than the foul, but the ref called Williamson towards him, and then as the midfielder continued to back away, the ref walked towards the player instead. Way to go to stamp your authority on the match, Mr Referee! Also, the Blades were constantly stealing yardage at throw-ins, which would have been fine, except the ref kept telling them to move back, then failed to act when they took another ten yards.

Nonetheless, Yeates followed Williamson into the book (again, apparently for dissent, rather than the foul), and I don’t understand how makeshift right-back Jamie Ward did not get booked for repeated fouls on Ando. Towards the end, Sheffield United’s left-back Kallio took down Gunts in full-view of the ref and lino, and the ref was not going to punish the defender until the assistant encouraged him to do so. Well done linesman, and although Kallio argued his case, he missed the ball and took the man.

Back to the actual football, and we were being pressed back by the ten men of Sheffield United. As so often, Forest were guilty of sitting too deep, and they looked a bit tired and backed off too much, allowing space to the opposition. There were a few hairy moments, although Campo did not have too many nasty moments to deal with, other than a couple of mid-rangers from the dangerous Yeates (one missed and one saved). Forest did create a couple of chances on the break, a decent effort from Chrissy was parried by Bunn, and Ando, looking knackered and on his wrong foot, could only direct the rebound into the side netting. Ando was soon replaced by Tys, and the least-popular-man-in-Derby soon forced an excellent save from Bunn as he drove for the far corner after a good pass from Earnie (who soon made way for Goldie).

With Forest looking tired, Raddy was withdrawn for the Mooooossssse, who made a decent cameo as an energetic box-to-box player in the last five minutes, but there was still time for Perchio to make the tackle of the day, as Stephen Quinn bore down on goal in stoppage time. An excellent intervention from a player who still looks rather uncomfortable to be playing on his wrong foot, and one that probably earned us two points. Well done James.

Billy commented afterwards that we look tired, and I don’t think many Reds fans would disagree with him (although he also used the interview as an opportunity to remind everyone that our squad in weaker now than a month ago). Ando has only just come back from a rest, and looked knackered after sixty minutes, Robbie Earnshaw was in a similar position, and while Chrissy was his usual industrious self, he seemed half a yard behind at times today. Fortunately, we have a better squad than last season, so can still call on the likes of Lewis, Goldie, Tys, G-Man and Big Dele. Man of the match today is probably between the two central midfielders: Raddy showed some amazing skill in the first half and a prodigious workrate in the second, but for me the main man today was the skipper, who showed that he still has it with some superb tackling and imposing himself on the match even as the Blades threatened. Nice one.

Tags: billy davies, chris cohen, chris gunter, darius henderson, james perch, nottingham forest, Paul Anderson, paul mckenna, radoslaw majewski, Robert Earnshaw, sheffield united   Posted in Match Reports

Nottingham Forest 5 – 0 Queens Park Rangers

My first midweek game in ages against an “ambitious” side with lots of money and love of merry-go-rounds saw 23500 at the City Ground – a decent attendance for a cold Tuesday night, especially as QPR didn’t bring that many.

Mr Davies saw one change from the team against Reading, with James Perchio replacing the suspended Nicky Shorey at left-back. From the sounds of it we are working hard to secure a loan extension for Shorey, so I hope it’s not the last we see of him in a red shirt.

So the line-up was:

And again our unbeaten run continues, our fantastic form continues and our amazing football continues. The players look so confident they could beat anyone and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves – we barely broke a sweat as we banged them in.

One more goal would have seen us go top, above Newcastle – if I were a Geordie I’d be very nervous right now – when was the last time you complained about only winning five nil?

Lastly, Billy was on Radio 5 – he was stressing the importance of building your infrastructure slowly, of taking your time to go up. But the interviewer said if we carry on like this, we’ll have no choice – we’ll be up this year. To which Billy replied “I still have unfinished business in the Premiership – it holds no fear for me”. Absolutely awesome.

So what are you doing on Saturday?

 

 Standard Podcast [15:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (358)

Tags: chris cohen, chris gunter, dexter blackstock, james perchio, kelvin wilson, Lee Camp, nottingham forest, Paul Anderson, paul mckenna, Queen's Park Rangers, radoslaw majewski, Robert Earnshaw, wes morgan   Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts

Psycho, Perchio, Shoreyo and Billio: news roundup

Some bloke called Stuart Pearce who says that he used to play for us is now saying that we are going to win the league as we have “spent a few bob in the summer”.

As we are planning on spending, not selling, Forest have rejected a “derisory” offer from Newcastle for James Perch, with Billy Davies not holding back (that makes a change for him) on his disappointment at the story being leaked. I say quite right too, and unless we can retain Shorey, we will need Perchio even more.

Speaking of Nicky Shorey, it has been confirmed that he will miss a single game following his red card against his old club. Unfortunately that is the last scheduled game of his loan period, but interestingly there is no comment such as “Shorey is likely to have played his last game for the club”.

Billy Davies is making a case that his signings have proven excellent value for money, and it is hard to argue if Campo really cost £250k; my Dad was also suggesting that £250k for Ando is proving to be a bargain. In fact, out of the players that Billy has signed, only Joel Lynch has not made a real impact this year (although he played well at centre-half during the early season injury crisis, and is potentially one for the future), and Goldie has been the only one who has looked overpriced at times (although he has made excellent contributions at others).

It is with a sense of inevitability that Arron Davies has left the club, although with a little more surprise that the powers-that-be have also decided to release Joe Heath, Aaron Mitchell and James Reid. Good luck to you all (especially Heathy – he looked OK I thought).

Finally, this little gem from the Championship Manager website: “Radoslaw Majewski is too good for the Championship”!

Tags: aaron mitchell, arron davies, billy davies, david mcgoldrick, james perch, James Reid, joe heath, joel lynch, Lee Camp, nicky shorey, nottingham forest, Paul Anderson, radoslaw majewski, stuart pearce   Posted in News

What’s a winger anyway?

GeriRed asked (in the comments) why William Davies keeps playing Cohen (left-footed) on the right and Anderson (right-footed) on the left, when you’d expect them to be the other way around.

Well I’m just a punter who bangs on about tactics without knowing what I’m on about; but in my (ill thought out) opinion, there are good reasons.

In the “olden” days, a winger had two jobs.

The first is obvious: cross it. Wing it, cross it, head it and in was the way. It was English football. An essential skill here was running at the full-back, taking it outside, and then getting your foot around the ball to put in the cross.

The second is slightly more subtle: making space. When your winger has the ball near the touchline, the defence has to move across to cover; leaving space, either on the other wing or for a central midfielder to slip free of his marker.

With the way the game has changed, that first job is much less important than it used to be. Alan Shearer is the last striker I can think of who played that way, with both Blackburn and Newcastle using out and out wingers to get the ball to him.

Instead, today, the second job is much more important.

That’s why, when Paul Hart failed to replace Jim Brennan, his diamond formation suffered – no width (in this case, from the advancing full-backs) meant no space for the attackers.

That’s why, against Reading yesterday, Ando wasn’t actually taking on the full-back and trying to go outside him. Instead he and Cohen were there to stretch the defence, to draw the defenders out of position and make space for Madge, or Gunter and Shorey to run into.

And as they don’t need to go outside their man, as they don’t need to push a cross in from the byline, the fact that they’re left or right footed becomes much less important.

However, there is another reason for the switch that is much more important than crossing and making space. Nowadays, there is another job that wingers are required to do. That is defend.

In the olden days the full-back was on his own when the winger ran at him. Today, we expect the opposing winger to have at least two tracking him. And normally that’s the full-back and our winger.

In our side at the moment, we have Gunter and Shorey (alas no more) at full-back. Of the two I would say Gunter’s real strength is bombing forwards, while Shorey is much more content to advance more slowly. This means that, when the attack breaks down, we have a massive gap on the right hand side.

And ultimately, this is why Cohen is playing on the right (and also why Tyson isn’t making the team). While both Cohen and Ando track back, Cohen is that bit better in the tackle than Ando. So if Gunter is caught, Chris can act as his replacement.

But then again, I’m just second-guessing WMD – he’s the tactical genius, unlike me.

Tags: alan shearer, billy davies, chris cohen, chris gunter, jim brennan, nicky shorey, Paul Anderson, paul hart, reading, tactics   Posted in General

Nottingham Forest 2 – 1 Reading

After our cup exploits against Birmingham, Billy reverted back to his (probably) first choice line-up, in an orthodox 4-4-2 – with a surprise return for Earnie and no place, even on the bench, for the Moooooooooooooooose.

The first half was as good a performance as I have ever seen; obviously brimming with confidence and ability. But the second half saw complacency sink in and if it wasn’t for Lee Camp it could well have no points, not three.

 

 Standard Podcast [22:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (373)

Tags: chris cohen, chris gunter, dexter blackstock, kelvin wilson, Lee Camp, nicky shorey, nottingham forest, Paul Anderson, paul mckenna, radoslaw majewski, reading, rob earnshaw, wes morgan   Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts

Heading north for the winter – news roundup

Paul Anderson reckons that Swansea fans are just jealous because we are a bigger club.

Meanwhile Chris Cohen says the big change is that we have learnt to win away. I would say that the big change is that we are ruthless.

Preston North End are looking to kick-start their season against their former manager on Saturday. Unfortunately there will be no podcast at the weekend as we are both busy – it is nearly Christmas you know.

Dark forces mobilise against former Forest and friend of the Garibaldi, Gary Megson.

Meanwhile Billy Davies has had his request for a Scottish scouting network turned down. Megson’s lot are interested in one of the first potential targets of that non-existent network – James McArthur who plies his trade at Hamilton.

UPDATE: Hans Backe is reportedly leaving Notts. Sven to leave next?

Tags: chris cohen, gary megson, hans backe, james mcarthur, notts county, Paul Anderson, preston north end, sven goran eriksson, swansea city   Posted in News

Nottingham Forest – still unbeaten: news roundup

Forest Player wasn’t working for me on Saturday so I didn’t really listen to the match. But looking at the highlights, it looked pretty one-sided. And we still came away with three points (and only two behind the Baggies, who play tonight)!

Paul Anderson was a key man for us and he came in for some stick during the game, given that he had earlier helped Swansea to promotion. Lee Camp also did sterling work, as he did earlier in the week away at Sheffield United. And Paulo Sousa doesn’t reckon it was a fair result. To which I would say that it’s always nice to grind out three points away from home.

Elsewhere, Forest old-boy Brian Laws leaves the cursed Hillsborough hot-seat “by mutual consent” (and Wednesday chairman, Lee Strafford, no longer accepts comments on his Facebook page, which is a shame as it was fantastic to see the fans communicate so closely with the chairman of a club). And sunny delight Paul Hart looks set to rejoin Harry Redknapp at Tottenham, taking over youth team duties there.

Tags: brian laws, forest player, Harry Redknapp, Lee Camp, lee strafford, nottingham forest, Paul Anderson, paul hart, paulo sousa, sheffield united, sheffield wednesday, swansea city, tottenham hotspurs   Posted in News

Nottingham Forest 5 (five) – 1 Leicester City

The East Midlands premier, most important, highly charged local derby was an excellent affair.

After ten minutes of hoofball we took control of the game, playing excellent, incisive, passing football at pace – and Leicester had no real answer. A couple of bits of referee weirdness, a guest appearance by the 2nd Mercian regiment on their return from Afghanistan (who got a fantastic reception from the crowd and a goal dedication from Rob Earnshaw) and goals galore.

Phew – what a day – the best entertainment I’ve seen at the City Ground in ages.

Unfortunately it’s a solo podcast today as my brother was away (and he will be for the next few weeks), so a bit shorter than usual and probably less professional (haha).

 

 Standard Podcast [9:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (575)

Tags: chris cohen, chris gunter, dexter blackstock, kelvin wilson, Lee Camp, nicky shorey, Paul Anderson, paul mckenna, radoslaw majeski, robbie earnshaw, wes morgan   Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts