Through the seasons before us..

Forest have been wobbling of late, so will be boosted by the news that injury victims Junior Agogo, Paul Smith and Nathan Tyson have all been declared fit enough for a place in the squad, they will be joined by John Thompson, who has been recalled from an impressive spell with Tranmere Rovers and will be in the squad for the trip to Gresty Road.  This will hopefully be a boost as Smoulds looks to get a reaction from a Forest side that has looked lacklustre for the last couple of games.

We were, of course, unbeaten on our travels until the Cherries beat us 2-0 on tuesday; our first defeat in seven league outings – and despite this, still sees us topping the table with a five point lead.  Crewe too suffered the end of a good run on tuesday, losing a three match unbeaten run due to defeat to Oldham Athletic.  They are amongst the more generous of defences in the league, conceding 40 goals this season in the league – so maybe even our misfiring strikers may put one or two away come saturday.

I would expect Paul Smith and Junior Agogo to return immediately to the starting line up; whilst Pedersen hasn’t really done much wrong (aside from the kicking at Salisbury!), Smith seems to engender more confidence in the defence, and Agogo gives a a real presence up front.  It would be interesting to see if Smoulders decides to put Agogo and Tyson out together.  I would also expect to see Sammy Clingan return to midfield after a disappointing showing from Gary Holt at Bournemouth.

Certainly won’t be an easy game – with wily old Dario Gradi in charge Crewe are certainly anything but predictable; if Smoulders manages to get the side firing on all cylinders then we should have enough quality to put Crewe to the sword, but if we fall foul of a bit of Dario’s svengali-like ability to make a silk purse from a sows ear, then we might be in for a bit of a rollercoaster.  But well, I’m a self-described ‘optimist’ so I suppose I should be positive and predict a triumph; or would I take a draw?..

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