Through the seasons before us..

Nottingham Forest – 1
Blackpool – 1

We finally got to see some progressive, passing, flowing, attacking football today at the City Ground.  Unfortunately for the fans in Red, it was Blackpool who were really showing Forest how it’s done, marshalled by the excellent Hoolahan in midfield, the Lancashire side – in all honesty – deserved their draw at the very least.  Of course, they were to attain that draw in very controversial circumstances – but I won’t let that distract me from yet another disappointing showing from the Reds.

The first half saw Blackpool with plenty of passing and endeavour, with little end product (sound familiar?), although they forced a punched clearance from Paul Smith – which was hoofed clear by Jack.  It was at this point, about 20 minutes in, that Keith Southern made a real mess of things and allowed Agogo to nick the ball and burst clear – with plenty of time to confuse himself with the options open to him, the striker calmly passed the ball past the keeper to make it one nil to the Reds.

Blackpool were denied a penalty when the tricky Hoolahan looked to have been felled in the box by Prutton, but the referee not only waved the protests away, he booked the Tangerines midfielder for diving – which was certainly harsh, as it looked like a foul to me.  Shortly after this Agogo tried an audacious lob from around 35 yards on the left, only for it to return into play off the bar – a great effort.  Lester then also appeared to be felled in the box – again, the referee choosing to ignore the protests – although not booking Lester.

In the second half Blackpool continued to play attractive quick-moving football, and frequently looked capable of carving out an equaliser  – fortunately for us much of their chances fell to David Fox who seemed incapable of hitting the target.  Prutton had a blast from 12 yards at the near post, but the keeper always looked to have it covered.  Blackpool piled on the pressure from this point, and Forest – predictably – sat deeper and deeper and deeper as the half wore on.

Hoolahan (who I might’ve mentioned once or twice) seemed to be at the heart of everything, twisting and turning his way past Forest players repeatedly and carving out great opportunities for his teammates – Keigan Parker being one who won a corner thanks to a smart save from Paul Smith.  Kris Commons came on for Lester and almost had an instant impact, heading just wide – but chances for Forest were few and far between.

The penalty came with 3 minutes on the clock – Hoolahan appeared to just fall over, perhaps the referee was mindful of the poor decision he gave in the first half, so gave the penalty.  It had to be taken twice, Hoolahan putting it past Smith both times, much to the jubilation of the decent number of Blackpool fans (including the ‘Frank Gallagher from Shameless’ lookalike) who’d made the long trip on a tuesday night.  And the Tangerines hadn’t finished there – a great shot from Burgess on the edge of the area rattled the cross bar in the dying moments.

As I said above, I thought Blackpool were the better team – but that doesn’t stop me being furious at the Reds for their largely inept showing.  We scored a goal gifted to us, had one excellent moment of individual flair from Agogo, and not a lot else.  Blackpool repeatedly carved our defence apart, with Smith having to make several decent saves compared to the one save Prutts brought from their keeper – whilst I don’t like the booing we hear all too readily at full time, I can certainly understand the frustration.

The other slightly irksome thing from a Reds perspective was Julian Bennett’s unsporting behaviour during the penalty taking.  I realise that it was a shit decision by the referee, but he just made himself look foolish by trying to psyche out the taker not once, but before the original and the retaken penalty – particularly since he’d just picked up a booking for the initial protests.  So there we go, Oldham dropped points again, and we didn’t capitalise again – well done to Blackpool, definitely amongst the most positive (Scunthorpe aside) sides we’ve seen at the City Ground – they’ll be feeling unlucky not to have won.

This result has left me writing off our chances of automatic promotion – even though we gained some ground on second place, it wasn’t enough – if you’re reading, Smoulds or the players, then consider this a gauntlet thrown down – I don’t believe you’re good enough, for whatever reason, to finish in the top two.  I would be delighted for you to take exception to this comment, and go out and prove me wrong.

Oh yes, a sidenote on Gary Holt – since he’s everyone’s favourite scapegoat on the message boards.  I thought he did okay today, until the last 20 minutes.  Now whether that means he’s not up to 90 minutes anymore, who knows – but if people start prattling about him playing being some kind of reason for the poor result, see the bigger picture.  I’m not his biggest fan, and if I was picking I’d go for Clingan – but really, it’s quite childish to pick on one person.  There were a number of disappointing performances in Forest shirts tonight.

Filed under: Matches