Nottingham Forest – 3
Swansea City – 1
The first half is probably best forgotten – Forest were ragged and disorganised and it wasn’t really all that surprising when Swansea took the lead 3 minutes from time when Fallon headed home from a corner. The side were booed off by sections of the ’support’ which was regrettable, although the performance was pretty piss poor and whilst Swansea hardly looked worldbeaters either, they probably did marginally merit their lead.
After half time it was a different story altogether. The reds had a lot more urgency about their play and it wasn’t long before Kris Commons was able to pick out an absolute peach of a defence splitting pass to leave James Perch (who at the time was playing left back!) with the relatively simple task of sidefooting past ex-Sheepshagger Oakes in the Swansea goal. He finished it well, though, bless him – and a day after his birthday to boot!
It was less than two minutes later that Commons himself slipped his marker and was left with the chance to stick the ball in the net which he duly did with aplomb, much to the delight of the Forest fans and the disbelief of the chav-type characters from Wales who were seeing a somewhat different Forest side to the one they’d been taking the piss out of in the first half!
Jack came on for the largely quiet (but hardworking as ever) Grant Holt – he’d had a torrid first half given our long ball penchant and hadn’t been given much relief by the ref, and it wasn’t long after Jack’s introduction that Agogo was able to shrug off the last defender and somehow get the ball over the keeper who’d come out quick to close him down to send the Forest fans into raptures – and a special thanks to the MC for cueing up the chorus to “Wake me up before you go go” to go with the celebrations – quality!
Commons went off to a deserved ovation from the home fans after his match-changing second half performance for Bennett, who presumably was benched owing to his four bookings bearing in mind we’ve two players out for international duty for the Scunthorpe game, and basically from this moment on it was all Forest – who introduced youngster Robert Hughes in the closing stages (although he still had time to have two long range efforts marginally off target).
All in all, a cracking result – particularly since Tranmere lost and Bristol City drew – leaving us 3 points clear of Yeovil of all teams! Despite the restrictions placed on them the Swansea fans didn’t disappoint, full of their anti-English nonsense and sporting more than their fair share of fake-Burberry. I always wonder if they hate England as much as they suggest then why play in our league and speak our language! If you hate the fucking English sing in Welsh!… oh, you can’t?…
Posted by nffc 
Swansea visit the City Ground tomorrow on a reasonable run of form – they’ve amassed ten points from the last six games, whereas Forest have accrued nine, so not much to pick between them except that perhaps of those six games, Swansea have done better recently – whereas Forest have failed to win in four outings.
Posted by nffc 
The aftermath of our match with Port Vale seems to have taken a negative twist, with bad feeling surrounding the furore that kicked off after Husbands’ sending off for his challenge on James Perch. On the one side you have Vale protesting it wasn’t a red card offence, which should be easily determined by video evidence – but the referee was close by and didn’t hesitate, and it looked nasty from where I was – plus strikers are hardly renowned for their ability to go in for tackles well, are they?
Posted by nffc 
Port Vale – 1
Forest of course are still unbeaten away from home this season, following the weekend’s draw at Prenton Park with Tranmere Rovers. However, with two points from the last nine available, we’re hardly sitting pretty on the top of the league at the moment, failing to score in the last three games.
It’s probably fair to say that in life he was often in the shadow of Brian Clough, and the same can certainly be said of him in death – but I think it’s high time the contribution Peter Taylor made to the great history of Nottingham Forest is more readily recognised, certainly by the club itself.
So when you see the Brian Clough statue in Nottingham once it is in place, spare a thought for his right hand man, without whom I don’t think the great Brian Clough would have been quite as successful. When Forest redevelop the Main Stand (which won’t be for some time, since a precursor for this is being established in the Premiership!) there are tentative plans for a better memorial to Brian Clough, I would urge the club to also suitably acknowledge the contribution of Peter Taylor. 
It’s slightly concerning that we’ve not hit the onion bag in three games, yielding only two points from a possible nine, but I’m not too worried just yet. The Oldham game was woeful, and we deservedly lost, but against Carlisle we missed a penalty, could’ve had two more, and both Grant Holt and Neil Harris did beat the keeper only to be found offside and guilty of a hand ball respectively.
Tranmere Rovers – 0
Forest started brightly, although Tranmere started to dominate the game after the first 20 minutes, but rarely created direct chances – Gareth Taylor had a chance with a stooped header, but nothing clear cut. They started the second half dominating also, pegging Forest back but the defence held firm – and interestingly Julian Bennett, who I think has struggled lately, kept Shuker very quiet on the right – and Shuker’s a player who has caused us nightmares before!
In a strange bid to make my previous post seem right, we’ve been drawn to play Gillingham away, what a thrilling encounter that will be! Given our synchronised relegation we’ve seen quite a lot of the Kent team over the last few seasons, and to be fair, after we rather childishly took delight in Eugen Bopp scoring the goal that relegated them, there has been an added element of spice between the two sets of fans.
I’m quite irked by this competition on all sorts of levels, I know that the late great Brian Clough used to have a philosophy of trying to win any competition you get a chance to, but personally I think this one is worth passing by in favour of ensuring our key players are fit for the all-important league campaign. But there are specific reasons, other than the Mickey-Mouseness of the competition, that it irritates me.
