Bloody Walsall! The curse remains..
Walsall - 1
Nottingham Forest - 0
It’s our tenth attempt to beat Walsall, and yet again we’ve failed! Whilst it was a game of two halves - with Forest dominating the first, and Walsall looking more impressive in the second, it was a game with only one shot on goal, one that Michael Ricketts slotted home after a poor headed pass from Sammy Clingan. It could’ve been worse too, because Ricketts had a second goal disallowed which looked legitimate.
Forest stuck with their 4-5-1/4-3-3 lineup, with Breckin coming back in at Wes Morgan’s expense, and Matt Lockwood replacing the injured Julian Bennett at left back. Despite carving out numerous chances, Forest were unable to hit the target at all - the slick surface on the pitch causing all manner of frustrations with slightly misplaced passes. Did you know the last Forest manager to deliver a win against the Saddlers was David fucking Platt?
It was a bad night elsewhere in the league too really, which drops us down to fourth in the league, two points from the automatic places. So all in all, all we’ve got to be pleased about was Millwall beating Orient. Smoulds described the game post-match as us having opportunities - but well, if we don’t make Ince make a single save then frankly, it’s hard to argue that we deserved much really. He also mentioned one or two playing “juvenile” football - interesting - will there be changes for the Brighton game? Probably not.
It sounds very much like Forest heads dropped - a promising second half, with chances spurned was followed by a second with an early gifted goal to the home side. From this moment on Forest didn’t seem to recover - there was some pressure, but no real end product, and if anything it should’ve been more convincing as Ricketts looked unfortunate to have a second goal disallowed after somehow outjumping Paul Smith in the Reds goal.
Depressing? Sure - but it really doesn’t sound like we did ourselves any favours on the pitch tonight, so we need to see an improvement down in Brighton on Friday otherwise we’ll lose further ground on the teams at the top. We don’t have to worry about the evil Saddlers again until March at the City Ground - can we finally break this irritating run of results against them then?
5 December, 2007 at 12:36 am
Yet another night of frustration. We have to have more passion and go for Goal. We will not get automatic promotion if we don’t put the pressure on the opposition goalkeeper. Not one shot on goal all night !! What’s the odds that we will get nothing @ Brighton on Friday. Come you Reds - Don’t let it slip out of your Grasp.
5 December, 2007 at 1:26 am
Let’s face it, we all knew we’d lose! I don’t think we’ve got much joy at Brighton in the recent past either. I think we will have to wait until Northampton at home to register our next win. Its not automatic promotion form to lose these sorts of games, I just hope we can get a bit stronger as the season continues to start picking up results at these difficult away grounds and hopefully that will be enough to scrape into the top two, because none of us will fancy the playoffs!
5 December, 2007 at 1:53 am
Bogey teams - every club has them, we’ve just got to move on and take the next game as it comes and try to get three points…
(here ends the clichés!)
5 December, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Well, the run ends on a trip away - not much of an away trip but still. You know what I fear, a repeat of last year…
I’m not saying it will happen but it’s the same time of year we messed up last time. We have strength, yes, we have depth, yes but I got a feeling we’re predictable again. We don’t have that unkown quantity to change a match.
On that point, what’s with this 18 year old kid being signed up?? Don’t get it, we sign a kid for us & yet ours which have been here for yonks are sent out to get 1st team experience. Why cant CC do a McGugan and thrust them into the 1st team here? That’s what he was saying at the start of the season.
Don’t get me wrong, if the kids good enough 2 be a red then so be it and all the best to him but why be two faced….
5 December, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Fact - we will not win automatic promotion unless we take at least a point at places like Walsall.
Spineless away performances like this (not a shot on target !)
will not get us there, we need to grind out results away from home even if its not pretty.
Our manager stands on the touchline with his arms open asking a player why he’s taken a shot (that flies well wide of the mark) from distance when he had space to run into.
He should not need to be asking that question.
5 December, 2007 at 8:55 pm
No-one seems to have mentioned the fact that Neil Lennon was not even in the squad last night?
Now CC has a fully fit squad (except Jules) it means that 2 of the senior pro’s dont even make the bench. I wondered who would miss out last night, Dobie is fairly obvious but surely Lennon would expect to at least make the bench? He’s in the reserves team tonight against Wolves so is obviously fit.
I understand it is very difficult to keep them all involved and Lenny had his problems the other week but I wonder if this could signal an early departure is on the cards? Any thoughts NFFC?
5 December, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Not sure what the Lenny situation is; I suppose he’s not made it back into the side since his issues, and McGugan has deputised pretty well… perhaps that’s all there is too it?