Through the seasons before us..

Nottingham Forest - 2
Northampton Town - 2 

A frustrating afternoon for Forest fans this afternoon, a first half which was completely dominated by the home side was followed by a collapse in form, class and effort to allow an improved performance from the visitors to not only equalise, but to take the lead - fortunately for the manager his substitution paid off and Agogo was able to salvage a less-than-impressive point with a last minute header.

The game started tentatively, with mainly Forest possession although Northampton had an early long range shot wide.  Forest gradually built up momentum and had consistent pressure on the Cobblers goal.  Tys turned and shot in the area, the shot being blocked by the arm of a defender - unfortunately the referee didn’t seem to notice this and waved play on.

Commons was desperately unlucky not to open the scoring after McGugan had found him, the winger managed to turn and when nothing looked on for him, unleash a right-footed shot which left Bunn (who we know from previous experience is a quality shotstopper) standing helpless as it rebounded from the crossbar.  The rebound just evaded Tyson in the area.

A goal was quick to follow.  James Perch hit an audacious cross-field pass to Commons, who did well to control it and keep it in play, and have the presence of mind to play the ball perfectly for the onrushing McGugan, who placed the ball powerfully past Bunn and into the net to give Forest the lead - a great finish and a great move.

Forest now played with confidence - Cohen played a great ball through to Tyson who was denied by a desperate last-minute lunge from Mark Hughes.  The ball ricocheted to Commons, who had a lot more time than he evidently realise, so perhaps the first-time left footed volley wasn’t the best choice - in this case the ball ended up with the quiet band of Northampton supporters.

The game opened up, but the visitors - whilst knocking the ball around well - didn’t look particularly threatening, whereas Forest certainly did.  A wicked corner hit in by McGugan nearly brought an own goal from Hubertz, whose near-post flicked header went right across the face of goal and just wide of the far post.  Perchy too should perhaps have hit the target when Cohen found him in the box.

Half time came, and we were left speculating how many goals we’d end up with - the Cobblers had offered very little up until this point, and Forest looked increasingly confident as the half went on.  I was also chatting to a fellow who had just bought a season ticket for his daughter - did you know that, in the absense of any kind of half-season ticket offer, that if you buy a season ticket now, it would cost you the same as if you’d bought it at the start of the season?  Outrageous!

The second half began quite ferociously, the first act of note was a cynical foul by Dolman on Tyson - to me it looked like the position of the defence meant with his pace Tys could’ve got one-on-one, but since the foul occurred in the Forest half I suspect that saved the defender a red card.  The Cobblers started to threaten and Hubertz brought a good save from Smith, who parried the ball away to a safe position.

An equaliser was not long in coming, though - Lockwood, who had a bit of ‘mare, gave the ball away allowing Ryan Gilligan to put in a decent cross which Hubertz was on hand to convert from close range.  Forest did break back, but McGugan’s long range effort deflected to give a corner, which was promptly wasted and Northampton were back on the offensive, looking a very different side to the first half.

Wilson put in a fantastic last ditch challenge in when Henderson was clean through, but the Cobblers were really stating their intent.  The lead for them came when Bowditch found Daniel Jones, who was able to outnumber Chambers as the left-winger was also forward, so he had little choice but to back off from him, with no covering player on hand to mark the extra man.  Jones unleashed an absolute thunderbolt unchallenged, which struck the post and rebounded in off Smith.

Now given it’s a shot to the near post you could argue Smith should’ve done better too, but the fact that the Cobblers were able to outnumber our fullbacks on both sides perhaps spoke of the lack of cover they were getting either from the wingers infront of them, or whoever was supposed to be playing the ‘holding’ role - the fact I don’t name a name there is indicative that, in fact, neither Perch nor McGugan really were doing this.

Commons was withdrawn for Agogo, to some odd reaction from the fans, I didn’t think this was a bad move.  The real annoyance was that Smoulds dictated Tyson should move to left wing and Agogo went upfront on his own.  The Cobblers were still threatening and Crowe almost got a goal from 30 yards, which was viciously dipping and Smith made an impressive save at the expense of a corner.

Grant “shop window” Holt came on for Cohen after this, at which point the Northampton side started to timewaste and defend in numbers, McGugan picked up a booking after he lunged in on Johnson having lost the ball to him moments before.  Grant mithered around the pitch a bit, but the only shop windows he’ll find himself in any time soon are charity shop ones.

Lennon was added for the increasingly nervous-looking Lockwood, and whilst he did have a poor game, I was disappointed to hear the reaction of some fans to this.  Lenny will never provide an attacking threat, but he did provide an outlet for the ball - something we badly missed in the second half, and I think Sammy Clingan would have provided.  Although the short freekick he took was pretty piss poor!

The goal came from the unlikely source of a corner, McGugan put in a decent delivery and Agogo headed into the goal at the near post to give - on balance - us a deserved point, despite us being largely atrocious in the second half, we did play some good stuff in the first.  The only other silver lining I can come up with is the fact that we would have lost this game last season.

I get the horrible feeling that this is the start of the traditional winter lull that we seem to have.  Hopefully the lads can prove me wrong, but we lost all shape, ability and desire in the second half - and were unable to cope with Northampton who, with all due respect, were not a particularly great side (despite the significant improvement in their second half performance).

The original headline was to be that Smoulds got out of jail, but I think he still is - I don’t know what he said to the players at half time, but whatever it was, it didn’t do the trick!  As for the brightspark who started “We stole your manager” at the Cobblers fans, that was silly wasn’t it?  From the message boards I checked out at the time of Smoulds’ appointment, despite him delivering promotion to them, most of ‘em were happy to see him leave!

First it was Mark Arthur commenting in the press that we weren’t selling anyone, which immediately made me think “oh dear, we’re selling someone.”  This was, of course, in response to the articles produced by a bunch of lazy and bored journalists who thought “Hmm, Megson is at Bolton, and he used to manage Forest, who are their good players again? Let’s just say that he’s going to buy that Tyson fellow, oh, and Commons - they’re good, aren’t they?”

As you can tell from my tone, I wasn’t too worried about it - speculation and rumours are always rife in the lead up to the transfer windows, and indeed, throughout them.  But it’s always slightly worrying when Arthur feels the need to speak out, fortunately Smoulders has also made similar murmurings in the press over the last day or so.

He’s after goalkeeping cover, which makes sense - unlike some fans I rate Smith very highly, but our backup is very inexperienced - we don’t want any “Carson for England” type moments by throwing in youngsters before they’re ready - so some good quality backup should something happen to Smith is a sensible move, albeit in my opinion not as much of an emergency as other areas.

The Evening post also speaks of a midfielder, which seems odd to me - that’s an area we’re very well populated at the moment, but we do only have two players who I would consider wingers, and Commons isn’t really an out-and-out winger, so perhaps some depth on the wide areas of the pitch is good, and by wide I’m not talking about waistlines!

Most importantly he recognises our potential problems upfront, particularly since Grant Holt was apparently hoping for a Liverpool game to “put himself in the shop window” - unlucky there, Grant!  We definitely do need to add a striker to the ranks, and preferably an out-and-out goalscorer.  Of course, those of the quality we crave at our budget and level are marginally easier to find than rocking horse shit, but only just.

I’ve written recently of Forest - and particularly Smoulds - as being good at talking the talk, but not always so eloquent in walking the walk.  I can’t help thinking back to last January where the noises from Forest weren’t so certain of signings, but the rumours were - and we did go for players, and didn’t attain their services - whilst letting others go we perhaps shouldn’t have.

So I really do hope that both Smoulds and Arthur have learned from these experiences this time around, because if we come out of this transfer window without them making good on these suggestions of squad strengthening then it will undermine the not-exactly-famed-for-achieving-what-they-say-they-will reputation they both have already further still.

But anyway, it’s one o’clock and that means it’s almost time to start thinking about heading out to the car to take in another 90 minutes of, well, who knows what it will be?  Certainly Northampton will be keen to put one over on us given the Smoulderwood factor and the fact they didn’t manage it last season - so let’s hope the Reds are approaching this game with the right mindset after tuesday’s disappointment.

Following the successful ‘Evening with’ Stan Collymore night at The Approach, the former Reds striker has agreed a repeat performance in the new year.  Once again he’ll be taking to the stage with Darren Fletcher from 5 Live to both have a chat-show style interview, followed by the opportunity for the audience to put questions forward for the player to answer.

Having attended the previous event, I can recommend it - Stan is both eloquent and entertaining, and whilst his parting from Forest still leaves some bitterness amongst sections of our fanbase, it shouldn’t detract from an interesting evening.  For more information about the event you can check out The Approach’s website, as well as how to pick up tickets - either just a ticket for the night, or for a mere £20 extra you can enjoy the evening in style with a three course meal to enjoy too!

So if your diary is free on January 15th then help stave off the post-Christmas blues by popping into Nottingham and enjoying the company of one of the most exciting players we’ve seen for some time, over a few beers.

Click the picture above for a fullsize version of the flyer, and keep an eye out as I’m reliably informed that Mark Crossley and Steve Stone have agreed to similar events in 2008.

I spotted this on the LTLF forum, and it’s interesting.  In the context of disappointing results and performances, Smoulds is always ready to talk of learning from past mistakes - and fair play to him, that’s the right attitude - but someone on the forum has spotted that perhaps talk is cheap if this isn’t followed up with action.  Let me illustrate what I mean by this:

That doesn’t look like learning much, does it?  What makes this all the more eyebrow-raising is the post-match comments from both games.  In October, Smoulds was angry with the performance, in December he was - not entirely dissimilarly - angered by defeat.  It is a veritable groundhog day of things, made all the more frustrating when both fixtures were against the same team, at the same ground within a matter of weeks.

Now it’s true that any message board you care to name will be full of anti-Smoulderwood vitriol after pretty much every poor result, but this does provide interesting food for thought.  I’m not, and hope I never will be, the kind of supporter who is so reactionary that I will happily forget about a great performance against Crewe, a well won win at Brighton, in order to take delight in a disappointing performance and result - but it is worrying that Forest succumb so easily to these Jekyll and Hyde performances.

I am pleased that Smoulders is angry, just as I was after the league game against the Hatters - but it does demonstrate quite starkly that he wasn’t able to put his finger on what it would take to get a result there.  Tinkering with a winning team (notwithstanding the forced change due to Sammy’s suspension) is always risky - but it sounds like his tactics were quite far off the mark last night.

On balance I’m still supportive of Smoulderwood, but it does ring alarm bells when he speaks of learning from mistakes, but demonstrates against a team he’s not long met that he has done no such thing.  He certainly talks a good game, but in selections, tactics and subsequent performances and results, he seems to have dropped a few too many bollocks for my liking.

Luton Town - 1
Nottingham Forest - 0

Before the game Smoulderwood said we had nothing to fear from Luton Town, from anybody.  He was wrong.  We should have feared our own inability to stand up and be counted in games like this.  We should have feared him not picking a sensible formation (four central midfielders, with two wingers on the bench?).

Had we heeded these fears, and contested the match sensibly, then we may well be looking forward to a new year cup tie with Liverpool rather than falling back on the tired (whilst perfectly valid) old cliche of concentrating on the league.  This is the reward that the poor buggers who travelled to Kenilworth Road were granted - whereby there wasn’t even the day out to compensate for the poor performance that those of us who went to Chelsea last season could take solace in.

Of course, the bright side to this is that this appalling display has probably reinforced the conviction that Liverpool - this evening pulling a European cat out of the bag and progressing to the knockout stages (the bastards!) - would have absolutely annihilated us in the next round.  Probably by only fielding their reserves.

You may detect I’m a little peeved about all this.  You see, I don’t mind losing - and I do prioritise the league above everything else, but there is no excuse for us not to compete, not to try.  The feedback I’m hearing is that this is precisely what happened, and frankly that is no way to reward fans much more committed than I who travel the country to often be subject to dirge.

So anyway, as to the game, Luton are decent at home - we know this already, they beat us in the league!  It took 20 minutes for either side to start to create, and inevitably it was the home side with Smith kept very busy in keeping Forest in the match.  The Reds got forward, but created little.  By the end of the half Luton had Forest pinned in their own half for around 15 minutes solid.

It was only 8 minutes into the second half when Luton got their goal - Spring crossed and Andrew was on hand to convert at the back post.  Shortly after this Lockwood handled in the penalty area, fortunately the referee opted to give a freekick on the edge instead.  Forest did start to show some promise after falling behind, however.

Lockwood shot on the volley from 18 yards from a Grant Holt pass, coaxing the first save of the match from the home goalkeeper.  Luton still looked dangerous on the break though.  Smoulds introduced Agogo and Commons for Tyson and McGugan, whilst leaving potential danger-outlet Arron Davies sitting on the bench.

The best chance Forest had was created by Cohen who latched onto a ball in the middle of the park, he beat the ‘keeper but unfortunately the shot didn’t have enough power to cross the line, enabling a Luton defender to track back in time to clear the ball.  Luton then went on the offensive and but for some desperate blocks by Perchy could’ve extended their lead.

So there ends another cup run, and a chance to cash in on a televised home tie.  Once again when called upon with die with a whimper rather than with a bang, and once again we get left feeling let down.  On the bright side, on that kind of performance Liverpool would’ve put more than six past us, and we would officially be worse than Derby!

So, let’s concentrate on the league now, shall we?  Good luck to Luton against the filthy Scousers, I’ll certainly be cheering on you in the new year.  At least their players might get paid now…

Administration-bound Luton Town’s players are currently playing without being paid, and the powers-that-be at The Hatters have decided to leverage this situation to offer the side an extra incentive - as if any were needed - to beat the mighty Reds on tuesday at Kenilworth Road tomorrow to claim the prize of a home tie against Liverpool.

What’s interesting is that if a player isn’t paid for fourteen days then they become a free agent.  Naturally I guess the vulture-like football agents around the country will be circling Luton should this become a problem, although bizarrely the club’s administrator, Brendan Guilfoyle said of this:

“In theory, if a player is unpaid for 14 days and has not signed a deferral then they are free agents but it’s facile to believe that situation would ever happen.  Let’s say that our most valuable player refused to renew his deferral, we would pay him, it’s as simple as that.”

Hmm, if it’s as simple as that (currently Luton have a one week agreement with their players for a total deferral of wages), then presumably that would mean that there must be some contingency to pay the players baked into the books somewhere anyway.  What if all their players didn’t agree to extend this deferral?  Very odd.

In-form Nathan Tyson is an injury doubt for us for the cup clash, which is a blow - he suffered some possible cramping in his hamstring at the Brighton game.  Smoulds has spoken of being uber-cautious with him, which given his injury record is a sound policy.  Whilst a cup game against the Scousers does whet the appetite, I’d rather have Tys available for the league games coming up over the festive period.

I’m not all that familiar with Russell Brand beyond the occasional appearance I’ve caught on Jonathan Ross - where he comes across as a fairly superficial person very much in the mould of the recent cult in ‘celebrity.’  So it was quite a surprise when a friend pointed me at this excellent article he’s written about Duncan Hamilton’s book about Brian Clough, and linked it with the current vacancy for the England job. 

So it’s made me reappraise him very much - so I figured I’d give you the opportunity to similarly view Mr Brand in a different light!  The article is published here on the Guardian website, and I’ll reproduce the text below for your reading pleasure.

Barwick must atone for the sins of his fathers 

Brian Clough, for all his extraordinary achievements as a player and a manager, is still often remembered as the best manager England never had. I am reading Duncan Hamilton’s Provided You Don’t Kiss Me in which he chronicles 20 years of interviewing Clough whilst, initially, working for a local Nottingham newspaper. I’ve not yet progressed beyond the early chapters so Clough is still in his prime, virile, volatile, passionate and frequently unreasonable.

What I enjoy most about this beautifully written and tender account of the relationship between a nervous young nit of a provincial reporter and a football genius is the sense of genuine proximity to its subject, so that Clough’s obvious flaws seem forgivable and even beguiling, rather than cruel and unbearable.

In the introduction Hamilton recounts an occasion where, whilst he was still in his teens, Old Big ‘Ead viciously coated him off in the home changing room in front of the wet and nude first team effin’ and blindin’ with such ferocity that he feared for his safety while Garry Birtles stared embarrassed at his own nude tootsies. The severity was such that Hamilton assumed that his relationship with Nottingham Forest was finished forever. Naturally, within 24 hours, Clough had called instructing him to get to the City Ground at once and that the argument had been a mere trifle.

From what I’ve read so far this is a wonderful book but I suppose I ought reserve judgement - perhaps in later chapters Hamilton loses all regard for his work and just scrawls slogans across the page in nail varnish, which would be absurd and not altogether unrewarding. What I can be assured of is that Clough will descend into alcoholism and stay at Forest for 18 months longer than he should have which gives even these early episodes a hue of sadness.

I’m a shade too young to have been fully cognoscent of goings-on at FA headquarters at the time that Clough ought to have been made national manager but have strong memories of his enormous and compelling personality. Once, during a non-aggressive pitch invasion, I think after Forest had won an important cup tie, he clipped one of his own supporters round the ear like an aggressive dad. He was a very potent man with an incredible life force and often such characters are sniped at and undermined rather than elevated and celebrated.

In his pomp Clough would’ve been a marvellous England manager - he vibrated on a plane of consciousness that made him a formidable leader but unnerved administrators. It is widely assumed that the reason he didn’t get the job is because the FA didn’t think they’d be able to control him - and they probably couldn’t have. That’s one of the reasons he’d've been bloody good.

If you have not yet guessed that I’m building towards a rather grand fanfare in support of the appointment of Jose Mourinho then you don’t deserve a newspaper and I suggest you take this copy of the Guardian, God’s newspaper I call it, and thrust it into the palms of an orphan who will be grateful of the nourishment. I think that by appointing Mourinho we can as a nation atone for the criminal neglect of Clough’s talent. Mourinho is his natural heir, more than Martin O’Neill, who admittedly played under him, more than any of the potential candidates. Who could be better? Who could inspire a nationwide buzz in the way that the sexy dog smuggler has so effortlessly done? Wenger or Ferguson? Why, they only have one European Cup between them and two full-time jobs.

I read that Brian Barwick, when asked about the likelihood of Mourinho being offered the job, just stared into space and mumbled bizarrely. Well, that’s the wrong attitude, no one ever got anywhere by staring into space and mumbling bizarrely except, maybe, Nostradamus but it is more for his perspicacity that he is admired than his mumbling and staring. Barwick must immediately cease this mumbling and staring and get on the phone and avenge the errors of the past and give us something to feel optimistic about.

Mourinho’s future is yet to be written but let’s insist that it is strewn with leading Blighty to glory. Let’s as a nation embrace unique and gifted individuals rather than suspiciously eyeing them as they subdue unspent ambition with toxic, bottled anaesthetic.

So there you have it, hats off to Russell Brand for a much unexpected commentary on both an excellent book (which I may or may not have plugged extensively before! ), and a solid appraisal on the current situation at the Football Association HQ.

Brighton and Hove Albion - 0
Nottingham Forest - 2

At the start of a weekend when everyone is talking about the boxing, it’s fitting that a Tyson double was a knockout blow for Brighton this evening as Forest responded perfectly to the disappointing performance on tuesday night at Walsall.  Tyson had it all to prove after getting red carded on his last outing at the Withdean stadium - a pattern that was to repeat for the increasingly out-of-luck Sammy Clingan.

Sammy has had a torrid time since opening his scoring account for Forest against Crewe at the City Ground.  Committing a mistake that cost us a goal against bogey-side Walsall, his latest misfortune came in the form of a harsh-looking red card this evening.  A yellow card seemed the fairer option, and given the proximity - and reaction - of the Seagull’s bench, perhaps that might explain the referee’s decision.

The silence of the Withdean “stadium” isn’t the easiest of venues to go to, and it took a while for Forest to get going, although despite dominating possesion early doors, Brighton took a fair while to fashion a chance - a header wide with Paul Smith covering just incase.  Matt Lockwood made a good block shortly after this to prevent Savage getting a chance on goal.

Forest started to build though, and it was McGugan who created the first opening for Nathan Tyson to play the ball into the box low, with a Brighton defender getting ahead of Cohen to prevent the chance.  McGugan again showed his creative side by firing a ball diagonally across field to Grant Holt, who headed across the 6 yard box but Cohen could only hit his chance wide.

On thirty minutes Forest took the lead - McGugan again the creator with a cross hit in with pace to Tyson, who had seen the Brighton ‘keeper commit himself - so cleverly buried the ball in the opposite direction into the top corner.  One nil to the mighty Reds and a personal demon exorcised for the Forest striker who hadn’t had the best of times previously at the Withdean!

Brighton responded positively and Forest were under pressure at times, with the ball seemingly stuck in the Forest area.  There was also a penalty claim when Kelvin Wilson and Andrew Whing collided in the box, the referee waving play on in the face of complaints.  Brighton hit the post after a Hammond shot was blocked by Smith, and Forster struck the post from the rebound.

The second half started with Holt on the right in a four-four-two formation (previously we had a four-three-three with Holt and Agogo in the side at the expense of Commons and Davies).  It took just four minutes for the lead to be doubled, and again it was that man Tyson on target for the Reds - latching onto a Wilson clearance, beating a couple of defenders and calmly lifting the ball over the onrushing ‘keeper.

Sammy’s sending off was minutes later - a ‘booking-at-worse’ challenge on Robinson infront of the dugout was greeted with some rare noise from the Brighton crowd, as well as theatrics from the home dugout, and this was clearly enough to convince the referee that a red card was the right decision - which visibly shocked Clingan.

Perch replaced Agogo to offer an extra midfield option since Clingan’s departure, with Tyson remaining upfront alone - who was still lively and giving the home side’s defence plenty to think about.  Brighton understandably racked up possession and pressure on the Forest goal, but Forest remained resolute with their defending and were able to clear the danger.

The lone Tyson was starting to limp around the pitch somewhat, and was replaced with Neil Lennon with around ten minutes on the clock, Brighton pressed without much end product, and the final act for Forest was to throw on Wes Morgan for Lewis McGugan in a move to kill more time as the result was looking increasingly inevitable.

So a clean sheet, a win, back to second in the league - but not without cost, presumably Sammy will be suspended as even if the Reds (rightfully) appeal the red card, they’re rarely rescinded these days as the Football League like to back their referees, no matter how idiotic.  And of course, there’s a potential injury to the increasingly sharp looking Nathan Tyson, which would be bad news indeed.

After the match Smoulders grabbed a few of the players shirts and went to throw them to the 749 brave souls who travelled down to the godawful Withdean stadium on a cold December night.  A nice gesture indeed, I’m sure you’ll agree.  So next up we can perhaps look to the Luton cup game with a little more optimism - or can we?

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? 

So, Liverpool at home if we can beat Luton awaits in the FA Cup third round - for this game I’m more than happy to park my usual “let’s concentrate on the league” cup apathy that dominates many of my reactions to cup draws.  Forget the Chelsea game last season - this one is huge for me, and better still it’s at home so the undignified scramble for tickets will be less of an issue this time around (again, if we can beat Luton!).

Fans of a certain age have ill-disguised bad-blood with the Scousers, and I’m certainly no exception - as you might have detected when I’ve had (limited) call to mention them in the past.  I’m sure that many Liverpool fans will have long since forgotten about little Forest, but there was a time that the animosity between the two clubs was huge - and hopefully those younger Forest fans teetering on the edge of supporting them in Europe will be swayed.

Of course, if we approach this game on the pitch in the same way as we did the Chelsea game then we’ll get a tonking, a right royal one - but I must admit, for the first time in a long time, I am genuinely excited to have an opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with the dirty Scousers - without getting into the political minefield of Hillsborough, let’s just remember John Aldridge and his antics with Brian Laws… not once, but twice!

So sure, a distraction from the league it most certainly is - but if a draw like this doesn’t spur the lads on against administration-suffering Luton Town, then I don’t know what will.  Thank heavens for my friends texting me, after a very pleasant pub lunch I settled to watch the end of Mansfield’s struggle against some parttimers and then the pub unceremoniously switched off the cup draw in favour of some bloody golf on Sky!  Bastards!

So anyway, a real no-lose draw if we make it to round three.  Of course we’re more than likely to lose, and lose ‘andsomely at that - but well, just allow yourself to imagine, if you will, the upset if we managed to get a result.  It would be absolutely brilliant - although the properties around the ground probably wouldn’t think so after the visiting fans went on the rampage…