Through the seasons before us..

Lest we forget

Nottingham Forest – 1
Bristol City – 1

It was the case of two immovable objects in the first half, as Gary Johnson decided to pack midfield – and so did Billy Davies!  It was actually the visitors who broke ranks first to attack which opened up the game in the second half, and two late goals meant the teams had to share the spoils – which on balance of play I think I would classify as a fair result, but it always feels disappointing to lose a lead to a late goal.  Ask a Cardiff fan last week!

It all started with – quite rightly – a minute silence ahead of Remembrance Sunday, which was well observed by a crowd that included plenty of folks in military uniforms.

Anthony Taylor avoided too much controversy, but was as whistle and card-happy as ever for both sides throughout – having to be in the action as soon as thirty seconds when an apparently over-excited Maynard annihilated Gunts in a challenge that areas of the ground seemed to think might have warranted more than the yellow card he received.  It seems Gunts is a bit of a target for fouls like that, after being on the end of one at Cardiff too!

The Reds were largely unchanged in terms of personnel from the Cardiff game, but Garner was operating more freely than against Cardiff, but again it was five in the middle to match Bristol, with McGoldrick a forlorn figure leading the line alone.

Camp
Gunter   Morgan   Wilson   Cohen
Moussi   McKenna
Anderson   Majewski   Garner
McGoldrick

Inbetween the midfield stalemate there were opportunities though, Raddy played a lovely ball through towards Anderson but Kerken was quick off his line to get there first.  Anderson again was denied a change by a last ditch challenge by the impressive Skuse after a good cross from Gunter.  In fact, if truth be told, City’s defence dealt very comfortably with the little we had to offer in terms of dangerous forward play.

City continued to assert their physical (read: dirty) side of play, this time it was Sno who went in ludicrously late on Paul McKenna for no good reason and picked up a booking for his trouble.  Probably amongst the closest chances we had was a 25 yard effort from Joe Garner, well struck but just wide – and I’m not convinced it would have had the beating of the ‘keeper had it been inside the post rather than outside.

The Robins were clearly playing the waiting game – but did have some moments upfront, Haynes broke and looked clear to bear down on Camp but for an excellent saving tackle from Kelvin Wilson. Kelv is looking more and more the player we think him capable of being of late, which is great to see.  There was time for a couple more Reds chances, a Majewski shot from the edge of the box was straight at the ‘keeper, as was a Garner header from a McGoldrick cross.

Half time came and it’s disappointing to say that some of the fans were having a grumble – it wasn’t a great half, don’t get me wrong, but even still. The visiting fans seemed to retain that strange dislike for us that they’ve had since Smoulderwood said something fairly innoccuous about them – still, whatever floats your boat I suppose!

As thought, City came out for the second half much more positively – and they had the first opportunity which fell to the dangerous Maynard but his chance was blocked by Wes.  Shortly after Wes was marauding their penalty area, he was felled (I don’t think it was a penalty as he’d kicked the ball too far away, but I don’t think he dived either) and booked ridiculously for diving.  This is where inconsistencies annoy me, because the ref waved on play when Brizzle players hit the deck rather too easily but never once booked any for diving.

Billy responded to the more open style of play by reducing our midfield by one and introducing Dele Adebola for Majewski just shy of the hour mark.  City were putting solid pressure on us though, and Camp needed to show he was concentrating which he was, claiming the ball amongst bodies and staying alert to one of those dangerous inswinging freekicks which on this occasion went straight at the goal without anyone getting their head on it.

McCleary replaced Garner to add a bit more attacking flair, and the winger had a shot quite early after a good ball from Cohen but dragged it wide from the edge of the box.  Forest were really looking at their most dangerous so far in the afternoon, and the Moose put in a fantastic cross that just evaded McGoldrick before going out of play.  This brought about the long-awaited return of Robbie Earnshaw who took to the field to a great ovation.

The best moment of defending in the game came after – McCleary did really well to get past his man in the area on the goal-line, and square back to Anderson who looked certain to score but for an excellent intervetion by Skuse to stop the ball pretty much on the line.  The crowd started to get behind the lads, and the breakthrough came from a Cohen freekick which was touched on by Adebola to fall nicely for Wes Morgan to spanner the ball into the net from six yards.

Perhaps we should have made it safe too, dele played a ball shortly after in to Earnie who shot over.  Surely a fully fit and sharp Earnie would’ve at least worked the goalkeeper?

The game of course ended on a sour note for us – a well-worked but badly-defended visitor attack lead to their equaliser.  Hartley was afforded far too much time to pick out an excellent cross which McCombe nodded to Haynes, who made no mistake with the finish.  As I noted above, a draw was probably fair on balance of play, but as we know from last week, a getting the equaliser feels a lot better than losing the lead to a late goal.

However, up to eighth in the table, eight games unbeaten – in a run which has seen us play some good teams in this league – I can’t say I’m unhappy with that situation!  In other news, Billy just missed out on Manager of the Month to Cardiff’s Dave Jones – who enjoyed a similarly successful October to us.  Hard luck Billy!  Kelv would be my pick for man of the match, with Wes a close second – both besmirched their performance by allowing the late goal though.

Davies: "I am delighted, it was a fantastic point for us."

Cardiff City – 1
Nottingham Forest – 1

All runs must come to an end, and it seemed that would be the case today in rainy Welsh Wales before Lewis popped up to unleash a left footed strike just into stoppage time to give the reds a draw which I think on balance is deserved, but in reality could be considered lucky as the Reds struggled to convert possession into chances throughout the game.

In a first half where the Reds had better possession, it was the home side who crafted the gilt-edged chances.  Lee Camp had three outstanding saves to make whereas Marshall was rarely troubled as the Reds struggled to find the target despite their endeavours.  A reasonable penalty shout for the Reds, a question over their opener being offside (it wasn’t), it was all finished off quite aptly for this Hallowe’en weekend by the man in the mask.

We all gasped as Billy announced he wanted six strikers – but his decision looks wise now as we are without Dexter Blackstock, Nathan Tyson and Robert Earnshaw through injury – the Reds lined up something like this:

Camp
Gunter   Morgan   Wilson   Cohen
Moussi   McKenna
Garner   Majewski   Anderson
McGoldrick

A definite plan to dominate midfield from Billy?  You would think so, but actually we started the game brightly and took it to the hosts largely through Anderson bursting down the left hand side.  Cardiff, unchanged from their previous game, seemed someone shell-shocked by the rampant Reds and took a while to get themselves geared up for the game.

The first half-chance of the game came to David McGoldrick – he latched onto a Joe Garner flick on but was forced wide by the recovering Mark Kennedy, the striker only able to shoot comfortably wide from a tight angle.  Shortly after game the penalty call, Anderson burst through beating Adam Matthews for pace before hitting the deck in the penalty area.

At the time it looked a dive – the half time replays showed there was contact between Matthews’ knee and Anderson’s trailing ankle, technically probably should have been a penalty, in reality it would have been harsh – and we would have been seething about it if it were given against us – and of course writing this still buzzing from knowing we equalised allows much more of a magnanimous outlook!

Raddy was struggling to get into the game, and quicker footwork from the Pole could’ve opened up Cardiff after good work by McGoldrick.  Perhaps our best chance though fell to Anderson – Garner challenged well in the area to head the ball out wide to the winger who dragged his shot wide with his left foot – where an inward-curling rightfooted shot looked the better option.

Gradually though the home side was awakening, and showed real signs of why they too are one of the form teams in this league who were in with a chance of topping the table this afternoon.  Lee Camp, who’d had very little to do so far, showed he was alert to save a cracking strike by on-form Peter Whittingham, the rebound fell for Joe Ledley who in truth should have made it more difficult for Camp, but the Reds ‘keeper made another smart save.

Whittingham – on a great run of scoring – probably crossed Lee Camp off his Christmas card list as he latched onto a flick on from Chopra, hitting an excellent shot from 25 yards which Camp dived to his left to keep out of the goal.  Forest regained some composure and wrestled possession back from Cardiff for a spell without really creating much of threat to the Bluebirds.

Cardiff, however, were showing they can make a lot out of a little up front – Wes did well to prevent the impressive Chris Burke from getting a shot on goal, and shortly after Kelvin clumsily brought down Bothroyd who was bursting through and was duly booked.  The first half was petering out just as Whittingham caught Gunter with a late challege – not sure why the Reds players reacted quite so strongly, it was late but not malicious, and Whittingham was rightly booked.

The final act of the half was a freekick to the Reds just outside the area, Majewski lined it up and struck the ball well, but whilist the height was good it was wide too.  Half time came and despite it being scoreless it was an entertaining if disjointed game so far – Cardiff showed much more ability to channel their possession into assaults on our goal whilst Forest struggled to do this with perhaps marginally greater possession.

Part two started nearly very badly for Forest – Bothroyd burst through, staying onside and looking clean through, Kelvin Wilson did very well indeed to get back and make the crucial challenge which would certainly have seen him walk had he got it wrong.  The Bluebirds maintained their stranglehold – and Ledley must had thought he’d scored but for Raddy to clear off the line (running the risk of a rebound off Wes).

At the other end Raddy went for goal but his effort was deflected to take the sting out of it and creating an easy save for Marshall.  He had to be more alive shortly after as Raddy played through McGoldrick who again was too wide to really threaten the goal – his shot hitting the side netting with some Forest fans in the ground apparently thinking it was in judging by the gigantic cheer audible on the telly.

Majewski was withdrawn at this point as Forest shaped to take a corner – with Adebola coming on.  As seems to often be the case, it was Cardiff who broke forward and scored – a throughball from Chopra slipped Bothroyd in and an excellent finish from the big striker gave Camp no chance.  It took four or five viewings to determine it was probably just onside for me – so begrudgingly I take my hat off to the linesman for that call.

Billy then withdrew Garner for Garath McCleary – and he immediately started to get involved, teeing up McGoldrick on the 18 yard line only for the striker to rush his shot and fire tamely at Marshall rather than blasting it.  The final throw of Billy’s dice was to bring on Lewis McGugan for the increasingly ineffective (and probably tired) Guy Moussi – and it turned out to be a masterstroke.

There were further frustrations to endure though, a good delivery by Cohen from a corner fell to Wilson on the back stick – he would have been expecting Marshall to have caught it so can perhaps be forgiven for not being alert to stroke the ball into the goal at the back stick.  The Reds poured forward but lost the ball – luckily for us we were able to halt the Cardiff break and unleash a counterattack of our own.

A ball into the box towards Adebola bounced off the big fella under the attention of a Cardiff defender, it fell kindly for Lewis – clipped off a defender and fell kindly again for him to unleash a wonderfully struck left footed shot that sailed into the top corner giving Marshall no chance and giving Forest a point that feels both deserved and slightly fortunate all at once.

After six minutes of stoppage time were played of the announced four, the referee blew the full time whistle to confirm the Reds unbeaten runs are intact, and denied the home side the opportunity to top the table – they need to be content with second place whilst the Reds are elevated to ninth.  A great point that I imagine we will feel happier with than our Welsh hosts.

McGoldrick's strike keeps Reds unbeaten run intact..

Crystal Palace – 1
Nottingham Forest – 1

A fairly laboursome game was always likely with managers like Davies and Warnock in charge of the two clubs – they’re both fairly well-versed in employing spoiling tactics to inhibit the other side, and this was pretty much the order of the day at Selhurst Park yesterday.  Residual controversy aside over whether or not Clint Hill meant to elbow Ando aside, Forest can probably consider themselves reasonably fortunate to have come away with a point.

Not that it was a bad performance – just disjointed with limited end product.  Camp was definitely the busier of the two goalkeepers, although personally I couldn’t quite see why the freekick Darren Ambrose expertly put into the net was given.  It came after a sequence of freekicks for the home side each time a member of their side hit the deck, and they did so rather easily!

Without the influential Blackstock and Moussi to call upon, Billy was forced to shuffle the pack a little with his personnel, and went with what I thought was a fairly predictable line-up (which probably makes it a sensible one!):

Camp
Gunter   Morgan   Wilson    Cohen
Anderson   McKenna   McGugan   Tyson
Adebola   McGoldrick

The Reds started positively, with Tyson proving the outlet through which our attacks were forming – whilst he gave Butterfield a hard time at fullback his final ball was rarely too much of a danger for the Palace defence to deal with.  There was a warning of what was to come from the home side too, Ambrose forcing Camp to tip a well-struck freekick over for a corner.

Shortly after Kelv had a nightmare moment as he slipped in the area – the ball ricocheted off him fortunately into the arms of Lee Camp.  At the other end McKenna fed the ball through to Tyson who unfortunately had a let-down first touch which brought the chance to nothing.  Meanwhile Wilson recovered well from his earlier wobble by denying Alan Lee a shooting opportunity.

The Reds were attempting to play the ball nicely but it wasn’t quite clicking for them and Palace worked hard closing and harrying.  They brought on Victor Moses before half time, and the youngster immediately looked like he was set to make an impact – he appeared to have gotten away from Gunter but fortunately Camp was on his toes to close down the angle quickly at the expense of a corner.

A freekick was awarded in the danger-zone for Palace after forty minutes.  Wes had breathed near a Palace player who fell over (I think it was Lee, but memory is hazy!) and the referee predictably awarded a home freekick.  That takes nothing away from the taking of the freekick, a curling effort into the top corner which left Lee Camp with bugger all chance of getting too.

The goal awoke the home fans for a while – with the help of the announcer who proudly shouted: “Scorer for the Eagles, Darren Ambrose… DARREN…”, and received a lusty and slightly embarrassing “AMBROSE!” back from the crowd.  Oh dear!

Then the moment of controversy.  Anderson, who had looked lively in the first half, was set to beat Clint Hill again only to be halted rather starkly by the defender’s elbow – right infront of the technical area.  Worth saying now that the view from the away end doesn’t lend itself to judging – and predictably this particular passage of play wasn’t replayed on the big screen at the crowd.

Davies was incensed – oddly the tannoy-man then started piping the biased views of presumably a local radio nobody to the fans.  They’ve squabbled in the press about it – let’s face it – Warnock’s teams aren’t unknown to be fond of using their elbows.  Anderson was taken off as a precaution, Hill was booked for an altercation with Gunter afterwards rather than the incident itself (which even Warnock admitted warranted a booking).  So McCleary prepared to come on just as half-time arrived.

Gaz was out warming up properly during half-time – and as the second half kicked off the Reds  came out of the blocks quickly to get the equaliser we really needed.  McKenna found McGugan who drilled a form cross-cum-shot across the box which McGoldrick was well positioned to direct into the goal from around the six yard line.  Shortly after McGugan again was the architect finding Dele who missed the target whilst off-balance.

The Eagles were still threatening though, Derry did well but Moses – under pressure from the Reds defence – blasted over from close range.  At the other end McGoldrick crossed and nearly got a flukey shot on target – although Speroni didn’t look too troubled.  As the game became end-to-end, Camp did really well to deny Darren Ambrose (Darren!..) from doubling his tally with a smart save.

As the half wore on the home side were starting to pile on the pressure – Neil Danns seemed to dance past around four Reds defenders, finding Moses who took it around a few more before Wilson got in the way.  The ball kept coming back though.  Billy’s solution was unconventional, putting Chambers on for McGugan – and playing the centreback in midfield (I was expecting a shuffle resulting in Cohen taking the midfield spot).

It didn’t immediately solve the problem, with waves of Palace pressure continuing – and Wes had to look lively to deal with a cross from Ambrose.  Slowly but surely though we started to press forward a bit ourselves – Cohen delivered a great ball to Tyson who shot agonisingly just wide.  Predictably the ball came back at us with former-Red Stern John striking a Wes clearance just wide from 30 yards.

Billy introduced Joe ‘yellow card’ Garner in place of Tyson, shuffling McGoldrick into Tyson’s spot and Joe up front, but frankly there was little involvement for him as Forest struggled to keep possession or get the ball forward.  The final minutes were all Palace, and it was Stern John who came closest from an angle, but his shot was never likely to get past desperate blocks from Camp and Morgan – with Camp making the save.

All in all, pleased with a point.  Controversy aside (and I couldn’t see enough to know anything, although have a natural predisposition to disbelieve anything Warnock says!), I think given the classic “away performance” type ideology we were reasonably good value for a draw – although we certainly had to defend more dangerous situations than we created, so should acknowledge we were a bit fortunate too.

Cardiff away is up next – and they really are the team to beat at their own patch, so it will take some performance to get anything out of them at all.  It will really test the credentials we’re starting to develop with an impressive unbeaten run still intact – and indeed, an even lengthier unbeaten run in the league away from home.  So long as we can avoid a Derby-style Cardiff embarrassment, or indeed, a Derby-style BBC embarrassment, then that will be something!