Through the seasons before us..

Nottingham Forest – 1
Bristol City – 0

The top versus second clash ended true to our initial placings, as a spectacular first half Nicky Southall freekick scored at the Bridgford End was enough to secure the points for Forest, consolidating our position at the top of the table, and giving us a rather welcome five point cushion into the bargain. Coupled with the satisfaction of the game itself, this was infront of certainly the largest and most vocal away support we’ve seen at the City Ground for while, unfortunately the vocal backing of their team wasn’t where some would leave it.

Reports circulated around the ground about trouble on Radcliffe Road, bottles thrown at Casa on the other side of Trent Bridge, and numerous arrests. By the time the game was over it was bedlam on Radcliffe Road with full on rioting, it seems that despite it being very common knowledge the carrot-crunchers were coming in numbers (and indeed, have a reputation for having an idiotic element), the police were very badly equipped to deal with the fighting.

But enough on the behaviour of a few inbreds. The first half of the match was the best I’ve seen Forest play at home this season, after a slow start we were positive, and certainly the lead we had at half time was deserved, indeed, we had chances to increase the lead – whilst at the other end a defence marshalled by Cullip with Paul Smith on top form as backup was working wonders also – and at times in the ground the atmosphere was electric, in no way small thanks to our West Country visitors.

Amusingly at times they appeared to be singing the ‘you’re inbred’ song (the one that goes to the tune of ‘The Addams Family’), which is a bit rich coming from the world-renowned area of inbreeding that is the South West But anyway, the Bristol fans certainly made their numbers count on generating noise – but were soon silenced when Nicky Southall put a freekick beyond their keeper, and it sure took them a while to get going again, when they did they seemed to spend more time watching the Forest supporters in Capital One corner rather than the game.

The second half was less positive from Forest, who fell into the all-too-common trap of defending deep and inviting pressure, although interspersed were some lovely passing moves which never seemed to result in any direct chances. But the last ten to fifteen minutes we really did seem to sit back fully, and it resembled the Alamo at times but fortunately for us Bristol were wasteful with the chances they had, or they were blocked by some heroic defending (usually to cries of “HANDBALL!” from their confused supporters, whose limited gene pool probably makes it the norm to have a hand growing from their chest). There were also elements chanting derogatory things about Brian Clough, which in my book should be an instant ejection, but there you go – I suppose every fanbase has their share of idiots, today Bristol appeared to have three or four times their fair share.

The final whistle was greeted with huge cheers, as you would expect, and a nervous walk away from the ground for the sensible majority keen to avoid the attentions of the arsehole element who had travelled up from Bristol seemingly to cause trouble and little else. A great result, a solid performance and top of the league, with five points to spare! Who could ask for more?

Oh yes, a special mention should go to an incident involving Perchy – he’d gone in for a challenge, and it looked to me as though he was studded in the chest, and took a knock to the head, and it understandably floored both him and the perpetrator from Bristol, which saw both Physios rush onto the pitch which rapidly became a race wildly cheered on from the stands – and on a great day for Forest, Gary Fleming arrived at Perchy moments before his Bristol counterpart, even raising his arm in mock celebration at his victory – very amusing! All in all, a great day with some regrettable subplots.

Filed under: Matches