Through the seasons before us..

Nottingham Forest – 2
Tranmere Rovers – 0

Smoulds described the game post-match as “chalk and cheese” – and he was dead right, a poor first half was followed by a, whilst not exactly sparkling, decent second – which saw a Junior Agogo penalty and an excellently taken Nathan Tyson volley deliver the goals that gave us the points, and take us up to 4th in the table, just three points off the top!

Tranmere started the brighter, or – in realistic terms – they were the least shit in the opening stages.  Smith’s first action was to palm away a header from Gareth “the elbows” Taylor after a corner from the left.  McGugan looked bright early on, but still has that tendency to try one trick too many before releasing the ball.

Sammy picked up a deserved booking for a needlessly late and reckless challenge, shortly after this was the first of several penalty shouts – Cohen was hauled to the deck by Kay when Commons crossed, but the referee in his infinite wisdom ignored this and waved play on.  Shortly after this Breckin was blatantly held down in the area by Taylor as a corner came in, again the referee ignored this.

Unsurprisingly it was the former Forest frontman who was next into the book, fouling Breckin for the second time in a couple of minutes.  Davies – starting for the first time in a red shirt – nearly broke the deadlock with a bit of magic, looking to be heading nowhere wide of the area, he flicked the ball past a defender before turning smartly and volleying forcing a save from the keeper.

The last real action of the first half was McGugan picking up a deserved booking for a ridiculously late challenge on McLaren – the half ended, there were some boos again – definitely a better showing than against Oldham, but that’s not saying much really!  At half time a policeman was pelted with a meat pie in the Upper Bridgford concourse.  Of course, I don’t condone throwing pastry products at law enforcers, but I couldn’t help but laugh.

The second half started really rather well for the Reds.  Julian Bennett whipped in a decent cross into the box, and under pressure from Agogo, Sherriff handballed in the box, and finally the referee didn’t bottle a decision and pointed to the spot.  Commons rushed off after the ball at this point, but the cunning Agogo popped to a nearby ballboy to get one, thus claiming the spotkick.

He took it calmly right-footed to the left of the goal, sending the keeper the wrong way in the process.  The goal sparked the Forest crowd into life, and bizarrely the travelling Tranmere fans too – who’d been fairly quiet ’til this point.  The banter flowed and it seemed for once the away fans were getting a harder time from the security staff than the home fans!

The turning point came however when Smoulders introduced Tyson for the quiet Commons.  Not particularly because of the individuals involved, but because we switched to 4-4-2.  Now, this 4-3-3 formation we’ve been playing (which is really 4-5-1) is not some kind of tactical masterstroke, it’s a case of the manager’s hand being forced because he doesn’t have enough strikers.

With Agogo having a partner to combine with he became much more impactful in the game, and with width in midfield we were able to keep the ball much more easily.  Within minutes Tyson was cynically felled by a Tranmere player, costing him a booking.

Smith had something to do with a high dipping cross that was looking goalbound, punching away to Taylor – who characteristically spannered it high, wide and not particularly handsome.  A similarly tricky cross came in shortly after which again Smith was on hand to tip over the bar.

After the corner from this, Forest broke with breathtaking pace – which was a joy to behold.  Chambers broke out the area, found Agogo who fed the ball on to Tyson.  The defender covering was cunning enough to keep Tyson on his right foot, and when the shot eventually came he was able to block it.

Bennett again was the architect of the second goal, a brilliant cross was lofted in – Tyson cleverly slipped his marker to position himself infront of goal to get a tremendous volley on the dropping ball, which crashed into the net off the crossbar in the Trent End.  It would have been a very easy chance to have missed!

Forest looked comfortable for a spell after this – Davies brought a save from the keeper, Tyson almost got on the end of a Cohen cross, Davies then brought another save from Coyne in the Tranmere net.  Tyson was in action to push the ball across goal, but Cohen, Agogo and Davies couldn’t quite get on the end of it.

Gradually though Tranmere worked their way back into the game, Smith did brilliantly to save a goalbound header onto the post – the rebound pinged around in the box a while before the ball was cleared, and that was pretty much the end of the action – a deserved three points for the Reds, but not a great performance.  But that will do for me!

Filed under: Matches