So no game for me this weekend but I did manage to get to see Forest play at Watford so I thought I'd offer some thoughts on the game instead.
I have always managed to get to a few games a season but last year was the first season where I didn't make a single match so I resolved to fix that and buck my ideas up for this term and arranged as usual to meet my cousin, Mick Oram, who is probably Forest's number one fan! You see, Mick simply never misses a game. In fact I think the last game he missed was something like the first game of the season 1982! Mick also runs the official travel club for Forest and has been heavily involved with the football club for most of his life, including a few fanzines. So if ever I need a ticket he's the man to sort it for me and I'll meet him in the closest 'away' pub before the game for a few liveners. Living in Hertfordshire, there was no excuse for not making the Watford game this time so we hooked up in the Wetherspoons at around 3pm as it was a 5.15pm kick off as it was live on BBC.
It's always a bit funny for me when I'm surrounded by other Forest fans because I'm so used to being the only one. Everyone I know seems to support Spurs, Arsenal or Man Utd - or another Premier League side. I sometimes get quizzical looks when I'm walking around Cheshunt in my Forest shirt and I always get asked why do I support them. Well, the answer is I was born that way! It's that simple. All my Dad's family are from Nottingham and Forest are the family team. My Dad grew up following Forest and I inherited this as much as I did all his mannerisms and the way he looks. I can't help it, I wouldn't change it and I'm bloody proud of it.
Of course, being a Forest fan for me between the ages of 0 and 18 were magnificent days. League titles and European Glory with regular trips to Wembley were par for the course for all Forest fans. We were the team to follow and of course we were spoilt with a diet of exquisite football from some of the best players to ever play in the top flight (Robertson, O'Neill, Gemmill, McGovern - I could go on....Psycho etc) and we had the best manager the game has ever seen in Brian Clough.
Everybody knows about the relegation's and subsequent years in the wilderness so for me life as a Forest fan in the last 18 years has been a bit 'hellish.' Sure, we enjoyed finally getting out of League One but there have been a catalogue of embarrasing players who have pulled on the Garibaldi red shirt in recent times as well as some appalling performances on the pitch. The David Platt episode nearly saw us go out of business with stupid, terrible siginings coming in on silly wages, and a board who didn't have a clue how to add two and two together let alone run a football club. Ridiculous appointments in the form of Joe "it's just another game that doesn't mean anything" Kinnear (referring to Forest v Derby!) and Gary "twat" Megson, left us all reeling as if we'd been punched in the mouth and I must admit, I struggled to see any light at the end of any tunnel.
My own belief is that we did well out of Colin Calderwood who eventually got us out of League One before probably taking us as far as he could before the fantastic Billy Davies came in and got us playing the best football since Cloughie walked accross the Trent. Finally it seemed we were back in business and the promised land of the Premier League was just a heartbeat away but play-off heartache has become something of a regular end of season feeling although that doesn't make the pill any easier to swallow. Billy's constant out-spoken rants at the board and their lack of decisiveness in the transfer markert became a weekly event on the telly and in the newspapers as well as his usual lines about "this young team" and "lack of players." From a fans point of view, I was chuffed with signings like Earnshaw, Moussi and Majewski and no-one works harder than Chris Cohen, but had to genuinly question the ambition of the club when the reinforcements that we so desperately needed (and everyone could see we needed) to get us over the finish line just never transpired. The stupid bloody 'aquisitions panel' seems such a long, useless drawn out affair that simply doesn't make any sense. I'm all in favour of the board being careful but the way they operate is so amateur-ish that I think it puts players off from wanting to join us. Why employ a manager in Billy Davies, who clearly knows what he's doing and what he needs in terms of playing staff , only to not listen to what he's telling you? I just don't get it. None of us do.
Poor Billy would have stuck with Forest had they not sacked him and his settled team would have been added to in the summer with the right players to allow us to progress. I firmly believe that he was treated harshly and I would always thank him for his services to the football club because he wore his heart on his sleeve and gave it everything.
Having said all that I must admit I was excited with the (immediate!) appointment of Steve McClaren. I was thinking, right he's got contacts in Europe, he's won the Dutch title, and apart from the England saga he is a decent coach! Finally we had promising signings coming in such as Greening & Andy Reid & Boateng.
Then all of a sudden it felt like I was in a time warp. All of Billy's lamenting was now coming out of the mouth of McClaren! The club hadn't learned anything and the dreaded aquisitions panel were once again slowing everything down and the signing of Wayne Routledge (a nailed on certainty according to all the papers) went tits-up. He'd got bored of waiting and joined Swansea. Ishmael Miller and Matt Derbyshire eventually were solid signings but I'm convinced that Wesley Verhoek, after agreeing to join us, took one look at the Micky Mouse way the club is run and cancelled his medical and left Nottingham without even looking back. Why-oh-why can't anything be simple? No further signings before deadline day. Not a left-back. Not a sausage.
The biggest laugh of all was getting a text from Damien: "Steve McClaren is considering his future at Nottingham Forest." Sky News confirmed this for me and I shook my head in disbelief. Our club was a joke. I mean come on!! I thought all the embarrasing days were behind us. A shitty start to the season, nine or ten players out and only five coming in and a squad that was even more depleted than last season. I actually wouldn't have blamed Steve if he had walked but he must have had an inkling about the way Doughty operated when he took the job?!
For me, Nigel Doughty doen't know his elbow from his arsehole. He's hiding behind Financial Fair Play because he hasn't got the bollocks to go all in. If you're going to invest 65 million quid into a football club then wouldn't you want to be in the Premier League? Wouldn't you want to take a chance or two? I'm not saying be frivilous and sign shit, but for fuck's sake Billy was saying it, the new gaffer, McClaren is saying it and so are all the fans - WE HAVEN'T GOT THE FUCKING SQUAD FIT ENOUGH TO COMPETE! Doughty sprouts on about FFP and being financially viable etc but I believe he's settled for Championship football. He hasn't got the minerals to take this great club forward and thinks we all owe him something because he's put his hand in his pocket occassionaly. I'm sorry but it's not good enough. I look at Leicester and West Ham and and all the other top sides in our division and the players they have brought in to strengthen their sides and I think it makes us look a laughing stock. Promotion favourites at the start of the season? You're having a fucking laugh. Doughty's mouth-piece, Mark Arthur, is just doing his bidding so I don't actually direct my anger at him. He's just a waste of space who is a spineless yes-man who should resign out of respect to all the Forest fans who have paid his wages for the last God-knows how long. We're not proud of the owner of our club - in fact we're pretty bloody ashamed.
Last week's suicidal performance at home to 'the sheep' drove the dagger deeper in to our hearts (especially losing Cohen for a year with a ruptured cruciate) and so it came as no surprise when Mick told me we'd only brought about 800 fans with us to Watford. I've been there before and we always sell out our allocation so it seemed the fans were voicing their thoughts by staying away. OK, the match was on TV so most probably thought it was sensible to save a few quid - especially whilst we were playing shit. But, it hurts a bit to see the fantastic Forest fans turning their back on the team.
A brighter performance at home to Newcastle in the Carling Cup in mid-week gave us all optimistic hopes and the emergency loan sigining of Clint Hill from QPR on Friday finally saw us land a proper left-back - albeit for 90-odd days....
I sat in the pub before-hand and chewed the fat with Mick and a couple of his mates and then made our way to Vicarage Road for the game.
Unfortunately, there isn't an awful lot to write about the match because it was one of the most boring games I've ever been to. We were perplexed to see Joel Lynch playing left midfield and it didn't actually click till later that in-fact McClaren had gone with a back three of Hill, Chambers & Morgan with Lynch and Gunter as wing-backs! Greening, McGugan & Moussi operated as a midfield three with Findley and Miller up top.
It was a messy game with no real fluidity and I don't remember us testing the Watford goal at all in the first half. Lee Camp, in the Forest goal was pretty quiet too but when called in to action dealt with any threat with ease. I think there was one good save from former Forest striker, Joel Garner's head that he had to make but there were hardly any shots on goal from either side. The game was pretty much taking place in the midfield with missed passes aplenty and the lack of penetration from Forest was frustrating to say the least. We just wanted them to put something together but it just seemed to much to ask for. Half time couldn't come quickly enough and when it finally did the most positive thing was that at least we weren't losing!
The second have wasn't much better and Mick's friend, Steve, was in the middle of jokingly blaming me for a lack of goals when we went and bloody scored! It came out of nowhere really - a long boot up field by Camp, bounced once and over their centre-back and Miller pooped in to slip it past the on-rushing Watford 'keeper, Loach. We were all a bit stunned really but took the goal gladly and celebrated accordingly.
I had visions of us shooting ourselves in the foot (a traditional Forest trait) but Watford weren't up to much at all and apart from the odd flurry at either end, the game sort of petered out and ended with a much needed victory. I'm usually full of words and love to write detailed reports but the game just lacked any real spirit.
It was a scrappy win and I'm praying will be a platform for us to go on a decent winning run of games - only time will tell...
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