Through the seasons before us..

Long-haired Port Vale midfield general, and part-time Michael Bolton impersonator, Danny Sonner must have received some nice magic mushrooms or LSD for Christmas, because the former-Reds space-filler has gone to press to say that Port Vale not only were undeserving of a 3-0 scoreline, but even that the Valiants actually shaded the game!  He said:

“Forest scored early and after that we got into the game and played some good stuff,  we did not create too much, but it was pretty even. 3-0 was a harsh scoreline for us, we did not deserve that.

“In fact, overall, in many ways I thought we shaded the match. But Forest have a lot of firepower and that was the difference.  We had most of the game, but we missed that firepower. They had fresh legs and fresh legs with quality - that is what made the difference.”

Bless him, whilst 3-0 was perhaps marginally flattering my memory of the game is one we dominated from start to finish, aside from a half-chances and a long range effort I don’t recall Vale having decent chances at all.  Still, if it makes you feel better for subjecting your fans to a godawful performance, Danny, you just go on believing your strange version of events!

Not just for two great goals in today’s game, but judging by the goal celebration pictured above, a new arrival has perhaps made an appearance - I remember when he was linked with a move to Bristol City that he mentioned in an interview that his wife was pregnant, perhaps she isn’t any more now and the Holt family have a little ‘un - if so, nice one Grant and family!

Nottingham Forest - 3
Port Vale - 0

Forest finally served up a belated Christmas treat for nervous Forest fans in a game that turned out to be a stroll rather than a canter, despite being on great form up until now, Port Vale had obviously over-indulged on their Christmas dinners as they were never at the races in this very one-sided game.  For us, it was great to finally see us control a game for a full 90 minutes on our own pitch and run out more than deserving 3-0 winners in a not-particularly-hotly contested fixture.

Port Vale are rather like the Notts County of the Potteries; with their rag-tag and bedraggled followers determined to enjoy the fixture - but, should any of the chav-like followers from the A50 be reading - it really is rather childish to chant disparaging things about Brian Clough; it used to really wind me up, now it just makes me lament the absence of wit that seem to be at the disposal of the modern football fan.  Fair play to the evidently pissed up band of council-house dwellers nearest us in the upper Bridgford though, they were determined to have a good day regardless of how appalling their team were!

Forest lined up in the familiar formation, with Thompson coming in again in Wes Morgan’s usual position, and Perch back in midfield alongside Clingan - with Agogo, Tyson and Commons making the forward three.  Vale of course had the unmistakable Danny “the crab” Sonner in midfield - who is one of the few former players who you have no fear of coming back to haunt you, he was predictably utter horseshit as were most of his teammates - hard to believe Vale are as high as they are in the league on today’s showing!

The first goal came after 13 minutes when John Thompson played the ball down the right to Junior Agogo, who rifled a cross where Nathan Tyson audaciously flicked the ball in with his heel to the delirium of the bumper Boxing Day crowd.  I imagine it’s a goal we’ll be seeing a few times come goal of the month or even season, a great piece of skill from Tys who had little other option given the ferocity of Junior’s cross.  And so the first half was to play out - Forest were dominant although the only other clear cut chance was a Southall effort from the edge of the box which was cleared off the line by the impressive Pilkington.

McGregor was busy kicking lumps out of anything that moved with no intervention from the referee; he did eventually pick up a booking for taking out Southall (after gone 80 minutes), but he should’ve walked long before then with almost constant fouling and niggling on Commons and Tyson in particular!  The second half started with Vale having probably their only good spell of the game, Tyson did have a chance to get onto a Commons cross, but couldn’t quite connect - and shortly after was substituted, with a slight hobble as he walked off the pitch and straight to the dressing room.  Grant Holt replaced him in a straight swap.

Kris Commons - who hadn’t played too badly, but was being marked carefully, was subsituted for Jack Lester, with a bit of dissent from the crowd, it must be said - but that was soon forgotten about when Jack held up the ball and played Grant through the smash the ball home from around 12 yards to give us a deserved 2-0 lead after 66 minutes.  Jack had a few opportunities but they were thwarted by the linesman’s flag more than once - from my vantage point I couldn’t really tell whether t’was the linesman or Jack who were in the wrong.

At this point Vale had visibly given up the ghost - they were uncontesting Forests’ heavy possession, and slightly frustratingly Forest seemed content to sit back a bit; but eventually Sammy Clingan broke with the ball and spotted an unmarked Grant Holt on the left, and picked him out with a great cross-field pass, leaving Grant with the not inconsiderable task of beating Mark Goodlad from around 18 yards with a tremendous finish which was the last notable action of the game.  Oh yes, and Gary Holt came on for the hardworking Agogo at some point before this, too - Agogo had had a good game, he and Tyson are rapidly becoming by partnership of choice upfront.

All in all, a good solid win - the first time I’ve seen Forest fully dominate a whole game at home this season, and 3-0 was not remotely flattering, we could’ve had more.  The perfect response from the Reds - we could’ve ended up 3rd today had results gone badly, as it is, we remain top with a 2 point gap, 5 points from 3rd placed Oldham as Bristol City only managed to draw.  We needed the win, and we got a convincing one - we need to take this form into the Tranmere and Oldham games and start to build a gap at the top again, but well done Reds - a good, solid performance!

Up to now the two sides have had contrasting fortunes, Forest recorded their first consecutive league defeats, whereas Port Vale - who were early pace setters in League One - have just won four straight games to put them within a point of the playoffs.  This Boxing day fixture promises to be a pretty tough encounter for us, despite Smoulderwood’s apparent confidence in our ability to bounce back from recent defeats.

Gary Holt is apparently a doubt for Forest, who had problems with his vision (as confirmed by numerous fan reports I’ve read) during the Doncaster Rovers match, and Nathan Tyson also took a knock at Belle Vue - it’s his calf that he’s suffering with, and he ended the game limping.  Vale will be unable to field Ross Gardner who of course is on loan from us - as part of the loan conditions.

Of course, we’ve played Vale already this season - they scored against us after a mere 13 seconds after Michael Husbands was on hand to hit home a rebound after Leon Constantine’s effort came back off the bar.  Breckin scored a scrambled effort for us before half time, in the second half Husbands was sent off for a two-footed lunge on James Perch (who was injured in the process) and kicked off a load of handbags and outrage, despite being an obvious red card.

Forest were unlucky not to go on to win the game, hitting the bar in the process - but well, such is life!   The game promises to be a tough one, it’s certainly an opportunity for Forest to end a dodgy run of form, but equally the Valiants will be keen to continue their excellent run.  Tough one, but it’s high time we put in a good performance at home and got a result, so my last wish to Santa will be for just that!

I’d almost forgotten about the furore in the game away to Vale involving Husbands picking up a red card, and that Vale were convinced it was some kind of mass conspiracy - but it seems the Valiants haven’t forgotten, and are still even now bitching about it on their official website, as they seek to capitalise on our recent wobble in form and pick up a result at the City Ground on boxing day.

Not only that, reading the article they’re apparently after revenge for Smoulders picking up a manager of the month award ahead of Foyle, and for us nicking top spot from them - all in all, they seem to have a bit of a bee in their bonnet about us - I suppose they will be moaning that we stipulated Ross Gardner couldn’t play against us as part of his loan agreement as well!

My favourite section of the whingefest on the Vale official site is this:

Martin Foyle missed out on the Manager of the Month Award earlier in the season to Forest boss Colin Calderwood. Although the league for of both clubs was excellent, Forest lost to Accrington Stanley in the Carling Cup and Vale beat Preston, but still Sky TV decided Calderwood was the deserving recipient.

Vale will be looking to seek revenge on a side that contributed to Michael Husbands’ sending off in the fixture at ValePark in September, which sparked a melee both on and off the pitch.

Silly buggers; but still, if they’re as wound up as they sound then surely it wouldn’t take much to wind them up a bit further into making silly mistakes

T’was the night before Christmas
and all through the league,
Not a team was placed higher
though there was some intrigue,

Forest fans were nestled
all snug in their beds,
Visions of our promotion
danced around in their heads,

We were two points clear
though the form was a-shake,
As we all settled down
for a good Christmas break,

The letters to Santa
were all despatched with ease,
A left back, a striker
a midfielder please!

As Smoulderwood plots
for his Boxing day match,
The fans will be there
Christmas Jumpers attached,

Our form has been wobbling
as we’ve heard in this tale,
But in this goodwill of seasons
let us fix it vs. Vale,

Beyond that keeping winning as
promotion would be heaven,
So here’s to it happening
in two thousand and seven,

But let’s not get complacent
as you cut your Yule log
And have a very Merry Christmas
from N-F-F-C blog!

It’s been an eventful few months since I started writing this blog, I was half hopeful we would attain promotion but hadn’t expected to see us as many as six points clear at spells. I’ve also been overwhelmed by how many visits and comments I’ve been lucky enough to receive from folks out there - 55,000+ visits in around four months is fantastic, may all of you have a great Christmas and New Year (although from an “on the pitch” perspective, only if you’re fellow Forest fans, of course!).

I’m sure I won’t be able to resist the lure of the internet over the next few days, so I’m sure I could’ve held off on this until then, but well, I couldn’t wait

Smoulderwood was in belligerent mood when interviewed after the Doncaster defeat - he described the game as largely even, and a freak goal being all that could separate them; hmm, not the first time I’ve suspected Smoulders of a bit of post-match rose-tintedness of glasses, as his appraisal doesn’t really match what I’ve heard from fans who made the dreary journey to dreary Doncaster, but still, he’s hardly going to start slagging off his players to the media, now is he?

Smoulds comments are in stark contrast to reports coming in from perhaps equally biased, but more realistic sources - such as the before-quoted ‘What’s in a name’ on the LTLF forum, who made a post which summed up the game thusly:

“Forest’s display was devoid of any notable direction or character. Be under no illusions, today’s disappointment was in no way triggered by an onslaught of sentiment from the hosts. Calderwood’s side have only themselves to blame; second to every loose ball, clueless in possession and openly passionless to the point of insult.”

But still, Forest do have somewhat a tradition of dodgy periods over winter months, so at least we had a good start to legislate for that; but now our lead at the top is starting to look anything but insurmountable for the chasing pack, so we seriously need to address our form, and whilst I’m sure the public comments Smoulderwood makes don’t necessarily echo what he genuinely believes or acts upon, I really hope he has a few January surprises up his sleeve to add a bit of bite to the squad.

He ended his comments on the Forest website quite bullishly, stating quite simply:

“The momentum has stalled and now Boxing Day at home is a very important game, but we will enjoy the victory and we will enjoy promotion.”

Hmmm, that’s fighting talk, that is Colin - let’s hope your players show a tad more willing to live up to such talk than they have in their last few outings, otherwise they’re going to start to make you look a bit silly.

Doncaster Rovers - 1
Nottingham Forest - 0

Forest succumb to a second defeat in two games for the first time this season, and see our lead cut to just two points as Scunthorpe picked up a win last night.  Fortunately Bristol City only managed a draw against Cheltenham, otherwise it could’ve been slightly worse - but a run of 3 defeats in our last 4 league games would suggest this is something other than simply a “blip” in form - and we need to get back to winning ways on Boxing day against Port Vale.

Travelling Forest fans had only one shot on goal to enjoy in the first half, whilst the Reds were apparently eager to give Doncaster as much time and space as they wished to pepper the Forest goal with chances.  John Thompson made a return to the Forest side in place of Wes Morgan, but never quite seemed to have the measure of Jonathan Forte for Doncaster.  Grant went down rather easily for a dubious looking penalty claim, and frankly, that was about as exciting as the first half got for us!

Ironically the only goal of the game was down to Paul Smith - until then he’d largely kept us in the game with numerous saves, but a speculative shot from Theo Streete looked to be dropping into his arms he somehow allowed it to end up in the goal.  A rather disappointing way to concede, even though we’d been pretty rubbish so far!  Despite a Commons effort and a through ball to Breckin just missed, Forest continued to spend much time on the back foot.

It wasn’t until the very end of the game that Forest started to play a bit, but there was to be no breakthrough and Doncaster’s farewell to their old home was to be unspoiled by any goals from the travelling Reds - leaving them free to celebrate the move to the nearby new ground with fireworks and cheers, as Forest fans shuffled coldly to the exits having witnessed yet another disappointing performance from the Reds.

This puts pressure on the Vale game on 26th now, and certainly raises a few doubts about just how easy promotion from this league will be - I would also hope that Smoulderwood will be thinking very seriously about some incoming players in the January transfer window - because it’s not quite clicking for us at the moment, and certainly if we were to be promoted without adding further to the squad, we’d get royally spanked weekly.

But, I’ll end with a snap of realism - if we had been told that we’d only add a couple of players to the squad and we’d be top and 2 clear at Christmas we’d all have been bloody happy with that; so we should be pleased with where we are, and it’s down to Smoulds and the players to address the poor performances starting with Boxing day, but then onwards - certainly it is better to have a wobble now, than just after the transfer window or as the season is ending, because we can still do something about it.

It’s been a Clough-tastic day for news today, after taking in the great news from the good folks at the Brian Clough Statue Fund, the Evening Post snuck in a story about the potential of a film inspired by the Forest legend in the pipeline from leading writer Peter Morgan, who of course recently portrayed none other than The Queen in a film.  Let’s hope he’s up to the challenge of providing a suitable film adaptation of the inimitable Cloughie!

I suppose I have reservations about this, much as I did with the ‘Old Big ‘Ead’ play in which Colin Tarrant was such a brilliant Clough on stage; but since the play was to exceed my expectations so heavily, we should have faith that further adaptations of Clough by actors an writers could also do so.  The medium of film, of course, lends itself more to explore the darker sides to Clough’s character, so will need to be approached with integrity, but it does made rather a tantalising prospect.

Michael Sheen is being touted as a probable actor to play the role of Clough; which is interesting - as the writer himself as (via his agent) not confirmed or denied he is even contemplating the project at all.  He played Tony Blair in Morgan’s “The Queen”, and judging by his page on IMDB.com he’s been very busy lately - he’s 37, so from that we could perhaps deduce if this is a genuine project it would be centred on his more famous managerial career - and given the age of the actor he could realistically cover right from Hartlepool to Forest - but who knows?

Any kind of immortalisation of a legend in writing, on stage or on screen has the potential to pitch it monumentally badly; particularly one who his held in such huge esteem by some sectors, and less so by others (I can’t imagine huge cinema takings in Liverpool, for example!) - but since ‘Old Big ‘Ead’ hit the stage I am hopeful that should this film materialise it will prove to be an equally fitting tribute to a man who can’t have enough recognition in my world!

As I posted a few days ago, I’m thrilled to report that it has been confirmed that ahead of Christmas the Brian Clough statue fund  has met- and beaten - it’s £60,000 target, thanks to £5,000 donated from Nottingham City Council, and the same amount from Nottingham Forest FC, has taken the absolute total to £69,000.  So all that remains for the hardworking guys on the committee is the not-inconsiderable task of commissioning a sculptor and negotiating a location for the statue.

The fund-raising has included an eclectic mixture of activities, ranging from sponsored haircuts, collections outside matches, sales of badges and keyrings, a gala dinner, ebay auctions, the monumentally great “Clough Aid” concert as well as countless other endeavours both by the Fund and by individuals keen to help the fund.  A huge and heartfelt well done to all of the statue fund committee who’ve worked tirelessly, and to every individual who have helped to raise the cash to give the City of Nottingham a worthy monument to the Great Man.