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).

 

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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.

 

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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 2 – 1 Sheffield Wednesday: match report and podcast

After last week’s setback (and its subsequent fallout), we finally get back in action in front of nearly 4000 Wednesday fans.

A couple of changes see us line up in a 4-4-2:

This saw Tyson replace Anderson on the left (probably giving Ando a rest) and Moooooose replacing Majewski in the middle – a controversy that Billy brought to everyone’s attention in the post-match interview. As you’ll hear, we have our own feelings on this; Billy and the club are both playing a dangerous game.

As for the game itself, it was pretty poor from us, Wednesday looked well-drilled and organised, but the match really belonged to the officials who were as poor as anything I’ve seen in a long while.

 

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Tags: billy davies, chris cohen, chris gunter, dexter blackstock, Guy Moussi, james perch, kelvin wilson, Lee Camp, nathan tyson, nottingham forest, paul mckenna, rob earnshaw, sheffield wednesday, wes morgan   Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts

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?

 

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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

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.

 

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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

Nottingham Forest 2 – 0 Coventry City

Another game undefeated for Billy’s men.

Five changes from the draw at Watford saw us line up, initially as a 4-4-2, but later as a 4-3-3 (Cohen moving to left midfield and Tyson joining Dex and Earnie up front).

Campo,
Gunter, Morgan, Wilson, Shorey,
Cohen, McKenna, Majewski, Tyson,
Earnshaw, Blackstock

Coventry set out to make life difficult for us and it worked – for most of the game, things were pretty dour. But two fantastic goals, pretty much out of nothing sealed yet another victory for us.

Points to note: both Earnie and Dexter were outstanding, Raddy got his own chant as he was substituted and McCleary, Lewis and Dele terrified the knackered Coventry players when they came on at the end. But it was the defence winning the plaudits today, with both Morgan and Wilson truly outstanding.

 

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Tags: chris cohen, chris gunter, coventry city, dele adebola, dexter blackstock, garath mccleary, kelvin wilson, Lee Camp, lewis mcgugan, nathan tyson, nicky shorey, nottingham forest, paul mckenna, radoslaw majewski, rob earnshaw, wes morgan   Posted in Match Reports, Podcasts

Christmas cheer and a Happy New Year?!

Greetings from afar and apologies for the lack of updates – as you can imagine Christmas is a funny time of year to be trying to post on t’internet.

Having listened to most of the Watford match, I think we will settle for a point, especially with Nicky Shorey pretending the ball hit his face (not sure that it is the Forest way, but I suppose these things even themselves out). Coventry today, and this should surely see us extend the increasingly impressive unbeaten run (I hope I haven’t just cursed it).

It is still unclear whether Wes Morgan will be back as tonsilitis can be quite debilitating, but Messrs Earnshaw and Majewski will be hoping for recalls to the “home” lineup.

Off the pitch, captain Paul McKenna (I managed to catch the second half of the Preston match on TV, what an excellent performance by the skipper) says that hard work makes the difference, while there must be something right when a keeper as good as Paul Smith signs a contract extension even though he is unlikely to be anything other than first-choice custodian (a decision that pleases Billy Davies).

Let’s hope for a win this afternoon and I would like to wish a Happy New Year to all of you, and thank you for your support in 2009.

Tags: coventry city, nicky shorey, paul mckenna, paul smith, preston north end, radoslaw majewski, Robert Earnshaw, watford, wes morgan   Posted in General

The juggernaut rolls on… News roundup

In the week that saw an amazing result, followed by a quietly satisfying one last night, little Robbie Earnshaw was rewarded for his “proper” hat-trick (c. Rahoul) with a place in the Championship Team of the Week.

However, that does not stop Billy Davies insisting that Forest are not ready for promotion, although he does drop in a teaser about potential new signings. Vital Forest are optimistic about a number of targets, including making Nicky Shorey and Raddy Majewski permanent players, and signing Gareth Bale on a temporary deal with the option to buy.

On the subject of last night’s draw at Bramall Lane, it seems that Lee Camp either gained us a point, or Dexter Blackstock cost us two (really?). Ned Kelly was happy with the result and Campo’s performance, although the custodian himself is keen to heap praise upon the in-form centre-half pairing of Wes Morgan and Kelvin Wilson. Things not looking too bad at the moment are they?

Tags: billy davies, dexter blackstock, kelvin wilson, Lee Camp, ned kelly, nicky shorey, radoslaw majewski, Robert Earnshaw, wes morgan   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).

 

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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

Wes in the team of the week, little Robbie in the team, Lewis and Dele on the bench (but want to be in the team): news roundup

Wes Morgan has astonishingly made it into the Championship Team of the Week. I say astonishingly not because he was bad, but simply because he has been eclipsed in recent weeks by the form of Messrs Gunter and Wilson, who have both upped their game impressively in recent weeks. No mention of Majewski or Gunter, who I thought were the outstanding performers on Saturday…

In other news, little Robbie Earnshaw is delighted to be in the team after weeks of frustration (and if he keeps scoring, surely he will keep getting minutes on the pitch), whereas Lewis McGugan is trying to handle the frustration of still being on the bench as an impact player, while Nigerian scouser big Dele Adebola finds himself in the same boat as his young midfield colleague.

Meanwhile Arron Davies and Matt Thornhill have been sent back from Brighton and Hove Albion as they are not getting in the team. I think we all suspect that Davies will move on at some point as he has never really been able to make an impact at Forest, but (like Vital Forest) I do hope that young Thornhill can pick up again.

Down the A46, Leicester City are looking forward to their trip to Nottingham – I didn’t know that they hadn’t beaten us at home in the League for 38 years! After we beat the bogey against Donny, let’s hope that this isn’t another record that gets broken – although Lewis says that we “fear no-one!“

Tags: arron davies, dele adebola, Leicester City, lewis mcgugan, matt thornhill, nottingham forest, Robert Earnshaw, wes morgan   Posted in News