Through the seasons before us..

Nottingham Forest – 1
Gillingham – 0

Cor blimey it was hard work, but hard work that paid off in the end as a Lewis McGugan rocket propelled the Reds to a pretty much deserved three points against perennial bad thorns Gillingham.  It rises us back up to third place with Yeovil having lost, and keeps the gap to Bristol four points as they were scoring the only goal of the game away at Crewe almost at the same time as us!

Forest started quite brightly, lining up with loan signing Alan Wright in place of the suspended Bennett, and with Chambers replacing the injured Morgan.  I have seen Wright play a few times before but had forgotten how tiny he was – although he impressed me enough, particularly considering the winger he was dealing with was easily six foot plus!  Mini-me looks to be a decent loan move to cover for the problematic left-back spot.

The first “chance” of the game fell to Commons, who was set to have a game to forget really – Agogo won the ball and headed to Commons who shaped up to shoot, but missed the ball completely and fell over in comedic fashion, much to the amusement of the miscreants sat below us in the away end – who looked like they’d all been to a jumble sale to pick up some new clothes for the occasion – my favourite being a toothless old curmudgeon wearing a very old looking orange tracksuit top and his best black combat trousers! (unfortunately despite my best attempts, a good picture of the pikey following was beyond my camera phone).

The next chance was carved by Agogo, bursting forward from the halfway line into the right channel, he shot and the ball was parried by the Gills keeper, leaving Commons with a relatively simple task of drilling the ball into the gaping goal – unfortunately, as I noted, he was set to have a game to forget – and he put the chance wide, again, drawing groans from the Forest fans and derisory cheers from the amalgamated chavs and travelling people populating the away end.

To be fair to Kris, he did have a chance on target – Alan Wright played a decent lobbed ball to Jack on the D with his back to goal, he laid it off to Commons who fired a fairly decent right footted drive which Larrieu perhaps made look better than it was by his slightly over-dramatic dive to the right.  Larrieu was in action again after a series of chances were spurned or cleared, saving from Lester – with Perch unable to quite capitalise on the rebound.

Perch picked up a harsh booking when he did clip Bentley,  and the Gills had a rare foray forward when Leon Johnson had a chance from a corner, his shot deflected wide by Junior Agogo.  The first half was pretty much over from this point, with Forest certainly going in unfortunate to still be level – and the Gills clearly encamped to play for a draw but maybe pick up a chance on the break.

The second half saw the Gills more lively, Smith had a couple of simple saves to make – and again, a pass from Alan Wright saw us mount our first serious challenge – Wright played a cracking ball to Agogo who moved the ball on swiftly to Commons to his left, Commons’ powerful lob though unfortunately dipped too late, and dropped over the crossbar rather than in the net.

A Gills corner was whipped in from their left, and from my vantage point I’m convinced that Paul Smith bizarrely carried it over the line with no opposition at all (he got a shove later, but I reckon the ball was already over the line), but fortunately the referee deemed otherwise.  The referee, incidently, was a fussy bugger of this highest order – he and his assistants gave baffling and needless decisions for both side throughout the game.

Forest tried to reapply the pressure they’d done so in the first half, but final balls or shots were looking less ruthless than during the first half, so clear-cut chances were rather at a premium – Chambers had a chance from a corner where he headed into the ground bringing a cracking save from Larrieu.  Tyson was introduced – and had been chanted for for a while by the fans – who started booing because Lester was being withdrawn.  Presumably Lester must have been feeling the knock he was carrying, some fans should learn when to keep their mouths shut.

Junior Agogo continued to trouble the Gills defence, but couldn’t quite get the ball to Tyson.  Chambers had another chance with a header from a corner after Larrieu had missed the ball, but couldn’t get sufficient power behind it.  Grant replaced Agogo shortly after this, Agogo had certainly been our man of the match so far – he’d worked tirelessly and I’m not surprised he was probably knackered!

Tyson was fouled about four times on the edge of the box before Mr Fussy-bastard finally deigned to give us a free kick.  Commons and McGugan stood over it, we speculated whether Commons would (a) spank the ball into the wall, (b) spank the ball over or (c) actually hit a good freekick that the excellent Larrieu would confound.  As it turned out, Lewis McGugan stepped up and unleashed an absolute rocket into the top right hand corner to finally give us a breakthrough.

The stoppage time wasn’t particularly tense this time – previously unheard of Brendan Moloney replaced Kris Commons and nearly marked his debut in spectacular fashion, scrapping the ball clear from a Gills corner to Nathan Tyson, who burst forward only to find Moloney had kept up with him to his left, Tys fed the ball to Moloney who unfortunately was let down with his first touch!  Tyson had a couple of other half chances, and after a spell of timewasting by the corner flag the Gills final clearance was greeted by the full time whistle.

A tight game, I hadn’t mentioned the odd spate of missed defensive headers that both Chambers and Breckin perpetrated in the second half, whether it was the sun or the wind it was odd they both started missing them, nor Chambers oddly wrestling a Gills player to the ground in the penalty area – fortunately none of these slip ups cost us dearly and we obviously went on to get the win that, on balance, I think we deserved.