Through the seasons before us..

Nottingham Forest - 5
Huddersfield Town - 1

A strange match from the Reds - the opening exchanges saw Huddersfield pressing Forest with dangerous wingplay, but little end product.  Paul Smith had a couple of easy attempts to deal with - but suddenly Forest burst into life on six minutes, James Perch lofting a ball over the Huddersfield defence where he found Junior Agogo who had burst through to beat the offside trap - he kept his head and lofted the ball expertly over the hesitantly advancing Glennon.

The next incident of note was a sad one, Sammy Clingan fell awkwardly after a challenge and was eventually stretchered off and replaced by Lewis McGugan - later reports on the radio have confirmed that Sammy has broken his ankle which is terrible news for the midfielder.  The good news, though, is that his replacement Lewis McGugan slotted straight into his role - and was on the scoresheet within six minutes of his introduction!

A Commons corner was flicked goalward by Ian Breckin, but was put out for a corner on the line - the subsequent corner from the other side - it looked like Breckin headed it backwards from the other end of the ground, but the ball fell to Lewis McGugan in the D, who unleashed an absolute piledriver from the edge of the box giving the keeper no chance at all of a save , and giving the young midfielder his first senior goal which he must be delighted with.

The third goal came after excellent work from James Perch - he charged his way down the right holding off a Huddersfield defender before playing a firm ball into the six yard box where Grant Holt was waiting to sweep the ball into the net from close range.  Shortly after this a rare Huddersfield incursion saw Smith tip a curling shot around the post, conceding a corner - but the pressure was short-lived and it wasn’t to be long before Forest were to claim their fourth.

Commons crossed from wide on the left and Perch had found himself in several acres of space to excellently execute a side-footed volley at an awkward height to leave Forest fans scratching their heads and wondering quite how to react to such emphatic finishing from the Reds.  Huddersfield had some pressure in the final stages of the half, but frankly were already looking a well-beaten side.

The first half scoreline is perhaps slightly misleading - Forest were uncharacteristically clinical in both picking out the eventual goalscorers and more so with their finishing of chances.  Whilst Huddersfield defended dreadfully, they did show moments of promise going forward although lacked the personnel to apply the finishing touch - which is perhaps forgivable given the absense of their top goalscorer from the lineup.

The second half began in a scrappy fashion - the majority of us present were expecting the usual “drop deep and defend like buggery” mentality we’ve seen from Forest with slim leads, but this wasn’t to be so - we chased down even when the ball was in the Huddersfield defence, and whilst Huddersfield offered something on occasion, there was great work in defence and midfield - particularly from Gary Holt - to break up and disrupt their possession.

Bennett picked up a surreal booking - after a challenge he landed with a Huddersfield defender who appeared from my vantage point to be held down in a headlock for much of the scuffle, after consulting with the clearly hallucinating linesman, the referee deigned to book Benno whilst taking no action against the Huddersfield strangler - an odd decision indeed, presumably at the hands of the linesman.

Forest continued to forge opportunities and Commons was desperately unlucky - not for the last time in the match - to not end up on the scoresheet with a right footed shot that the keeper was able to tip onto the crossbar.  The fifth did come though, and what a great build up - Agogo headed the ball onto Grant Holt, who gently headed a throughball to put Agogo clear once again of the offside trap and calmly round the keeper before stroking the ball into the empty goal.

Let me say that again - Grant Holt and Junior Agogo played a one-two in headers to setup the goal - and that epitomised the confidence with which the Reds passed the ball around in spells for this game.  Commons again came close with a freekick that had the beating of the keeper, but dropped just onto the net, shortly after this Agogo could’ve sealed a hattrick when he headed a Commons cross wide, Grant perhaps should have done better - bringing a good save from Glennon with a right-footed drive.

The ideal clean sheet wasn’t to be, unfortunately - Huddersfield didn’t really deserve a consolation goal in my view, but some confusion in defence after a Danny Schofield cross came to Matthew Young who volleyed it into the ground for it to bounce into the net.  The long-suffering Huddersfield fans cheers were largely muffled by the ironic cheers from the Forest fans who - for the first time in a long time - had no worries of any realistic chance of not claiming the three points.

Grant Holt looked to have done everything right to claim his brace after this, beating the offside trap and attempting to lob the keeper, unfortunately his touch was a little too hard and it took the ball over.  By this point Forest were able to keep possession to shouts of “ole!” from the crowd - at one point a poor Huddersfield player was nutmegged not once, but twice by Julian Bennett and then Gary Holt!  Kris Commons’ last good chance saw him beat two defenders wide on the right by the touchline, but his fierce shot from a tight angle deflected out.

A great performance from the Reds - and not a flattering scoreline at all - we were much more clinical in the first half, taking practically every good chance we had and scoring, in the second we were less so - we had 8 or 9 very good goalscoring opportunities over the course of the game, to have converted 5 is hugely rewarding and to have four different scorers is also a big boost.  Of course, this must be tempered with the sad news of Sammy Clingan’s broken ankle, but if Lewis McGugan can grasp this opportunity he showed the makings of a very good midfielder.

We’re back up to second, we’ve given our goal difference a much needed boost and it’s so great to see so many young lads in the side again.  Big Wes, Perchy, Benno, McGugan and latterly Robert Hughes all featured, and are all players who’ve come through the ranks (in Benno’s case via a spell in Walsall) - and the experienced heads did a good job today.  Gary Holt is readily singled out by all and sundry - he had a bloody good game today.  Agogo will rightly take the headlines, but I don’t think there was anything short of an excellent performance from everyone on the pitch today - well done lads!

Smoulds continues to be a bit baffling in interviews - he played down the performance, and said whilst he was happy with the result he was merely satisfied and thought we could have done more, a fair point that if our finishing had been as good in the second as the first half, we really could have enjoyed the kind of rout we’ve not seen for many many years at the City Ground - but considering his enthusiasm over performances a lot more dour, I’m sure he’ll be getting a few critical comments from the internet community!