Through the seasons before us..

Crewe Alexandra - 0
Nottingham Forest - 0

Even Jeff Stelling was shrewd enough on Sky to note that a goalless draw at struggling Crewe was not good enough for Nottingham Forest.  He’s quite right - let’s not mention that it was a Crewe side heavily impacted by injury too.  Frankly, I’m pleased I had other plans today so didn’t make the game, nor was around to get frustrated by listening to the match.

The start boded well, a freekick from Sammy Clingan was on target from 30 yards, but straight at the ‘keeper.  Whilst Forest perhaps dominated possession, they characteristically failed to convert this into chances on goal.  Davies had a moment where he beat two men and hit a shot which was deflected away for a corner by a defender at the near post.

After half an hour the home side mustered a chance - Forest deciding not to close down Crewe striker Joe Anyinsah who fortunately shot wide.  Agogo created a great chance for Cohen moments later, laying a ball into the penalty area for the midfielder, but unfortunately Cohen unselfishly tried to find the run of Agogo with a poor cross rather than having a go himself.

Again the second half started with Forest looking positive - Wes Morgan went marauding forward as he does occasionally, and stayed forward a while to try to make something happen.  Agogo headed goalward but was blocked and Ian Breckin of all people was on hand to connect with the rebound, unfortunately putting it just wide.

Agogo controlled well and shot well from 25 yards, which the Crewe ‘keeper did well to save, the resulting corner was nearly a Bohinen-esque goal-straight-from-a-corner, but sadly hit the bar.  A Clingan cross was punched clear by Williams, falling to Breckin whose shot was blocked by a defender as Forest did actually mount something resembling pressure on the Crewe goal.

A bit of silver lining on this cloud of a result was the return of Nathan Tyson, who was introduced for new signing Brett Ormerod (who ominously has escaped mention in the match reports I’ve picked up), although as is our way, it was some time before he was even able to get a touch of the bar. Davies had clearly picked up an injury and was withdrawn for McGugan.

Thornhill was introduced for Breckin as a final throw of the dice by Smoulderwood, but the game was set to peter out with no more chances for either side - leaving us with a measly point when only three would really do.  Meanwhile, both Doncaster and Carlisle registered home wins, as did Leeds and Southend just beneath us.

Were in not for the amusement provided by Portsmouth and Barnsley’s results against Manchester United and Chelsea respectively in the FA Cup it really would have proven a shitty weekend for football.  Once again I find myself stating that without a significant improvement, nay, a dramatic one, we can kiss automatic promotion goodbye - indeed, we could even end up dropping out of the playoffs at this rate!

As one wag on an internet forum pointed out, since Crewe had so many injuries they looked like a reserve team - you’d have to wonder if our reserves would’ve beaten them…  Smoulderwood may say we can still do it, but does anybody seriously believe him any more?

A big thanks to those of you who sent captions in for my debut competition to win tickets to The Approach to see ‘An Evening with Larry Lloyd and John Robertson.’  It was a close call, but after going through ‘em I’m pleased to report that Chris came up with the caption on the picture enclosed, which amused me most.

For those of you that missed out, you don’t have to miss out on the evening itself - for a very reasonable £12.50 you can still order tickets directly from the venue.  See full details for the night by clicking here - my past experience of these evenings at The Approach would suggest that it will be a top evening’s entertainment!

Also a big thank you to Dave at The Approach for offering me the tickets to put up as a prize for the competition.

Here’s a shocker, and a pleasant one - we’ve signed Brett Ormerod on loan for the remainder of the season from Preston North End.  He’s been handed the number 18 shirt, and looks likely to be involved immediately against Crewe Alexandra tomorrow.

He’s 31 years old, and has found himself on the fringes at Preson, making just nine starts this season, and eleven appearances as a substitute - during this run in the side he’s picked up only one goal.  His career started at Blackpool, where he scored 62 goals in 124 starts before moving to Southampton.  He’s had a rough time on the injury front lately, which are thought to have limited his opportunity at Deepdale.

So welcome on board Brett - certainly we’ve all expressed concern over our lack of striker cover - and given Will Hoskins’ continued struggle with his back injury, the need for additional cover was all too clear.  Sure, Brett isn’t going to solve all our problems, but it will give us another dimension up front - so it’s nice to have some nice news to report for a change!

I’ve kept quiet on the Leeds United appeal against their 15 point deduction until now, waiting to understand exactly what is going on with the case.  Ken Bates has continued to campaign that the 15 point deduction was unjust, arguing that not only were they punished twice, but the nature in which the decision was basically in the hands of their competitiors.

My understanding is there will be an arbitration panel with representatives from Leeds United and the Football League - which Leeds have accepted reluctantly, preferring the public nature of the courts for their battles, owing to the likely feet-dragging allowing the decision point to go beyond the end of the season, by which point presumably points can’t be retrospectively reallocated.

Bates is certainly shrewd, whatever else you may say about him, so I can’t imagine he would have proceeded so continually unless he felt there was a chance that it would happen.  Indeed, if you check out The Bookmakers, who are seldom wrong, they are offering longer odds on them getting nothing back, than getting all 15 back currently.

There are three ways I can see this going, given the remit of the arbitration panel:

• The panel deems the punishment meted appropriate to the financial irregularities in Leeds’ exit from adminstration - result, no points returned.
• The panel deems that the irregularities did not warrant any punishment at all, with Leeds being deducted 10 points last season (despite being all but relegated already) - this was distasteful, but my understanding was it was a legitimate loophole in place.  Result, all points returned.
• The panel deems that Leeds’ financial irregularities was punishable by a points deduction, but the level of deduction was too much/too little.  Result, less than 15 points awarded, or a further deduction.

Not the most clear conclusion, I guess, but it puts another layer of complexity on our already fragile hopes of automatic promotion.  A return of the fifteen points to Leeds (regardless of whatever I may or may not think about this), would see Leeds - currently admittedly - leapfrog from 7th straight to second on 65 points, three points clear of Doncaster, nine points clear of us.

I can be quite philosophical about it, because to be honest, I don’t think we have much chance of getting that second spot now - however, if the points were returned and the standings were similar, or indeed, if we went on a run and climbed up there only to be shoved back down through Leeds being awarded further points, then naturally I’d be gutted - just on a purely selfish and biased level, regardless of the facts or justice (or lack of).

Regardless of the fact-based decision making of the arbitration panel, and I can’t really comment on this as frankly the financial machinations of Ken Bates’ Leeds United are beyond people with far greater expertise in business practice than I there is a softer point that Leeds did psychologically benefit from the point deduction - whilst they would undoubtedly be contenders for promotion (and indeed, still are despite the deduction), I’m not sure they’d be quite so far up the table as they would end up with a restoration of their point deduction.

I have severe doubts that they would have flown out of the blocks quite so emphatically were it not for the opportunity to right the perception of a gross misjustice that the Ken Bates PR machine spun with great alacrity.  Of course, that kind of impact is impossible to measure beyond blatant hypothesising on my part - which I make no apologies for, I think there’s only one person on the planet who understands the financials of that football club - which is a worry!

So keep an eye out on the news from April 14th when the independent arbitration will apparently commence.  There’s no real precident for this in the past to my knowledge, the nearest I can think of was the Sheffield United row with West Ham over the dodginess of their fielding of Tevez - which dragged on to the point the Blades were already down.

I’m deliberately not getting into the rights or wrongs - I’m writing this from a Forest perspective and the fact of that matter appears to be there is a risk that we could end up cast further adrift from the race for automatic promotion, which would be a major problem for us.

Woe betide us at the moment, it seems - on the back of Monday’s disappointing defeat against promotion rivals Carlisle United, Smoulds has revealed on the official site that we have a number of injury concerns in the run up to our must-win (aren’t they all, now?) came at Gresty Road against Crewe Alexandra.

Commons apparently has ‘question marks’ over him due to some kind of problem with his groin, leaving a late decision on his availability for Saturday - and in the meantime he’s not been training.  Luke Chambers is also still a doubt with a dead leg - although, and no disrespect to Luke, I don’t see that as such a bad problem as I’m comfortable with Perch at rightback in his place (indeed, I think with a run in the team Perch would prove more adept there).

McGugan should be fit, which is good news indeed after he picked up a knock to the ankle on Monday, and the perpetually-injured-yet-quick-to-recover Nathan Tyson is a possibility for the weekend after resuming training from his hamstring injury, which is certainly excellent news - although he’s clearly going to be lacking match sharpness.

With Commons out it certainly gives opportunities to Arron Davies and Garath McCleary - although if the shapeless 4-3-3 formation is retained, and the possible availability of Tyson would make this more likely, then I can see them both remaining on the bench - I’d be thrilled and surprised to see us line up with wingers (Davies on the left, like that playoff night, McCleary on the right?) to provide a proper outlet for Sammy Clingan.

Also, don’t forget to send your entries for a chance to win a couple of tickets to see ‘An Evening with Larry Lloyd and John Robertson’ at The Approach in Nottingham on 20th March - go on, you know it’ll be a great night!

It’s a first for me to offer prizes for a competition, so I’m quite excited that the lovely folks at The Approach in the centre of our fair city have offered me a couple of tickets for their forthcoming ‘Evening with..‘ night - featuring none other than the legendary pairing of Larry Lloyd and John Robertson.  Two men who need no further introduction, I’m sure!

So, check your calendars, and if you’re free on the evening of 20th March then read on - below is a picture of John Robertson celebrating after Forest had won the European Cup, all I want from you is a caption for the photo - please email this to me, along with the two names you would like to be added to the guestlist on the evening.  I shall pick the one that tickles me the most.

Deadline for entry is this coming friday (7th March) at 10pm, after a stringent judging procedure I shall email the lucky winner confirmation and arrange for them to be included on the guestlist for the evening - so get your thinking caps on and make me chuckle, and should you miss out on the prize, then of course you can book tickets for what promises to be an excellent evening’s entertainment - click here for the full sized flyer.

It will be a welcome chance to relive a few past glories given our ongoing struggle to haul our arses out of League One, and if the previous nights at The Approach I’ve attended with past Forest players are anything to go by, it will be a cracking evening.  So without further ado, the picture is below - get your captions emailed over to me, and I’ll announce the lucky winner on Friday evening!

Nottingham Forest - 0
Carlisle United - 1

As sure as eggs is eggs, when Forest play infront of Sky Sports’ cameras, you can be sure that some sort of calamity will ensue - and tonight proved to be no exception.  It was a game that will leave a sour taste for many Forest fans, to the point where they will forget the positives that did come from the game - and there were some.  Unfortunately a dogged and hardworking Carlisle side were gifted the chance to score, and all that good work was undone in painfully familiar fashion.

Rather than toasting our re-ascendence to second place, we are looking up at a five point gap to reach tonight’s opponents.  We are looking at our fine run of results at the City Ground coming to an end, and frankly - I believe - we’re looking at a playoffs-at-best finish to the season unless something changes rather dramatically on the field for us.  Pivotal was this game, and unlike this time last season, we have two would-be second place competitors rather than just the one.

So, the game - Forest lined up with a back four, with James Perch coming in at rightback for the injured Chambers, the suspended Breckin was replaced with McGugan in midfield as Smoulders opted to defy the logical formation and instead go for his widthless and shapeless 4-3-3 formation, with Clingan in the holding role, Cohen and McGugan further forward and Holt, Agogo and Commons alternately drifting into isolated wide positions.

Carlisle were quickest out the blocks and had both a freekick and a corner within the opening minutes, culminating in a shot wide.  Beyond this the first half was mostly about Forest, our first chance fell to Agogo from a Bennett cross - alas the striker was unable to do much other than shoot straight at the ‘keeper.

Commons went for the spectacular, which at the time I didn’t blame him for, however Grant Holt was unmarked on the back stick and would’ve been better placed to convert - had his effort gone in, of course, we would have immediately forgotten about his greediness.  Probably the best spell of football in the game followed this, we won the ball in midfield and eventually the ball was deftly flicked on by the heel of Agogo to Commons, who sadly spannered his shot well wide.

A foray forward for the visitors saw Wilson unusually let an opponent get the better of him, fortunately his lay-off to a teammate was spooned over the bar to spare our blushes.  After this Commons whipped a superb corner in, Bennett rose brilliantly to meet it - only for Westwood to rise to the challenge and tip the goalbound header over the bar.

Forest at this point applied the pressure to Carlisle who were content to defend in numbers and close down the ball very quickly - despite a series of corners to the Reds, the away side defended valiantly which meant chances weren’t exactly numerous or clear-cut.  Holt was the next culprit for missing one of these chances, hotting over from a Commons cross.

Probably the chance of the game from our point of view came in at the death of the first half, Bennett put in a wicked cross which practically dropped onto Grant Holt’s head at the far post, but the striker seemingly headed the ball backwards rather than goalwards preventing the net from bulging.  So at half time we were quite pleased - we’d had the best of the game and restricted Carlisle to relatively little possession nor attacking play.

As the second half began it was again Carlisle who started the brightest, taking a freekick quickly and - fortunately for us - Bridge-Wilkinson missing the target.  Their best chance of the game came shortly after - a cross from the right went right across the face of goal but luckily again under the foot of Bridge-Wilkinson when a goal looked a certainty.

Forest, however, were much more fragmented this half.  The insane one’s formation looked even more shapeless and purposeless, and succeeded only in overcrowding midfield without providing any outlets out wide - except for our opponents, of course, often leaving Perchy and Bennett with two opponents running at them.

When we did get forward, Carlisle were back in numbers - they closed down, harried and threw bodies in the way of practically everything that we tried to fashion - increasingly the fans, who had got behind the team well in the first half, started to resort to the usual chuntering and moaning (self included, it has to be said!).

The goal came from an unfortunate error of judgement by Paul Smith, who came a long way to claim a ball from the right which he fumbled, as it fell to Danny Graham the defence and Smith alike seemed absolutely dumbstruck as the hardworking striker stroked the ball into the open goal from a tight angle to give the visitors a rather fortunate lead.

For all their effort and endeavour that followed, Forest just couldn’t seem to find any penetration and all their attempts at getting back into the game were confounded by the large numbers in defence for the visitors.  The best opportunity we had was from a freekick after Bridge-Wilkinson had almost taken Sammy Clingan’s head off - Commons struck it brilliantly, but frankly, their keeper didn’t really have to move to tip it over (he did, for the cameras - but he was practically stood on the post Commo went for).

Davies was introduced for McGugan but struggled to get involved, and eventually Garath McCleary made his debut from the bench, replacing James Perch and taking position on the left wing.  He had a few touches, but little chance to impress in the time he had on the pitch, and ultimately the game fizzled away - the only remaining chance being put wide into the stantion by Grant Holt after good work from Davies.

So, I think it’s fair to say we were unlucky - however, we were very wasteful too.  Carlisle are to be admired for their workrate and taking their chance when it came (not that it was difficult!) - we really are more often than not our own worst enemies and tonight was no exception, both on the pitch and off it, as well as in the stands.

Which brings me to the fans - we were decent in the first half, but frankly, if the tickets-for-a-fiver deal brings some of the morons who came out of the woodwork, then stop doing it.  The abuse levelled at Paul Smith (yes, he made a mistake - generally when that happens to a goalkeeper, it involves a goal!) and James Perch (who had a decent, if nervous-looking, game I thought) was ridiculous where I was sitting - I hope these people don’t come back any time soon.

Naturally I’m gutted - and I do think that this result, unless followed by a rather spectacular change in form and results, is a significant nail in the coffin of automatic promotion for us this season.  We have a certain amount of control of our own destiny with so many games against teams towards the top of the table, but frankly, it’s when we have control of our own destiny that I’m most nervous!

So - and I’ve not checked out the message boards yet, but I can predict their contents - it’s not quite the End Times that I’m chronicalling this evening, but it could rapidly become a dent in our aspirations.  Just as our home run has been ended this evening, we need to be starting an away run - and we certainly need to return the favour to tonight’s opponents by getting three points against them on 1st April.

Just a reminder for those £5 ticket wielding people who perhaps haven’t seen as many games this season - Paul Smith is a fucking good goalkeeper, the error he made was from him doing precisely the thing that people like you harangue him to do every week (ie, come out for crosses when he’d be better off staying on his line).  Just because you’ve read on a message board somewhere that James Perch hasn’t been playing well, slagging him off when he’s been okay is a pretty pointless endeavour.

Finally, is it possible to abstain from being featured on Sky Sports?  Please?

Yesterday Doncaster beat Tranmere 1-0, leapfrogging both ourselves and Carlisle United into second place - even Walsall picked up three points against Luton too, putting them just a point behind us having played a couple of games more than us.  Tranmere, who lost of course, finish off the playoff zone, and just outside Southend limped to a point against Cheltenham, and Leeds finally won a game again away at Swindon.

It makes a win for us pretty important tomorrow infront of the Sky cameras, it would have us back in second place - pushing Doncaster down to third on goal difference.  If we are defeated then Carlisle would claim the second place spot with a two point advantage over Donny, a five point advantage over our good selves.  Whilst there’s plenty of games left, there’s no denying that this one is pretty damn huge however you care to look at it!

In terms of team news, for this game Breckin is suspended - which makes the ‘three at the back’ formation an unlikely one for the Reds, Tyson is obviously sidelined, but loan striker Will Hoskins faces a late fitness test on his back injury which means with a bit of luck he will be available for the clash.

Carlisle too have had bad news on the injured striker front, on-form Joe Garner has suffered a knee ligament injury and faces a lengthy layoff - whilst former Forest ’striker’ Scott Dobie is ineligible to play due to an agreement between the two clubs when he was signed for Carlisle from us back in January. 

And what with the £5 all round tickets, and a reasonable 600 fans expected to make the trip from the far north, we should be in for probably the highest crowd of the season so far - so let’s make that count and get behind the lads - we could, as commenter Alan Wood quite rightly points out, really use a good start to this game to get the atmosphere positive!