Through the seasons before us..

Nottingham Forest – 0
Sunderland – 1

An impressive following from Sunderland for a midweek friendly

Neither optimism nor despair were offered in this fairly pedestrian friendly; for me personally the law of Sod dictated that I chose the less exciting of the two friendlies at the City Ground this season to attend.  And so it proved; a very low-paced first half was followed by a more disjointed second, with the game decided by a well-worked goal where the lively Stokes played an excellent ball from the left cross the penalty area into the path of the onrushing Richardson who made no mistake smashing the ball in emphatically.

Forest played a mysteriously vague formation, that relied on Bennett and Chambers to push forward to give us any width at all; which is part of the negative signs – because it leaves us frightfully exposed down the flanks, which will be no surprise to anyone who watched games last season.  That said, there was promise early doors when Earnshaw did well to flick a Chambers ball down for James Reid who spannered it into the away end.  Another chance for the Welshman came from a freekick which dipped a bit too late to force Gordon into a save.

His third chance came after he somehow beat the giant Nosworthy in the air, but wasn’t able to direct his header at all.  The other thing to be pleased about was my first viewing of Guy Moussi – whose ungainly appearance belies his ability to pick out a decent pass; but also doesn’t disguise his no-nonsense approach to scrapping in midfield to win the ball.  It’s early to be making snap judgements either way, but he certainly looks promising.

A less impressive number of Reds fans in attendance as the teams take to the pitch

Smith was called into action after a very-rotund-looking Andy Reid found ex-Sheep botherer Higginbotham to head goalward; and shortly after it was only a deflection off Wilson that prevented Daryl Murphy hitting the target for the Mackems after a mistake by James Reid.  As the first half wore on Sunderland did start to ascend toward the end of the half, with Forest increasingly looking limited on ideas to convert possession in defence to meaningful attack.  

At half time McGugan and Reid were withdrawn for McCleary and the hitherto-unheard-of triallist from Borussia Dortmund; a striker/winger (apparently, according to hasty web research – although he played in McGugan’s position during this game) from Sierra Leone.  He looked comfortable on the ball, but lacked match-sharpness; again, far too early to make any judgements.  He is apparently a highly rated youngster in Germany – but then again, so was Eugen Bopp!

The second half saw Sunderland start as they’d left off, their new signing Diouf (who was roundly booed every time he got the ball) bringing another save from Smith with a powerful drive after cutting in from the right hand side; before being victim of a mass Roy Keane substitution which the hopeless tannoy announcer didn’t really make very clear at all – although ex-Reds Darren Ward and Michael Chopra were among the players arriving on the pitch, as was Anthony Stokes.

Excitement rippled around the ground when we thought we’d taken the lead, or at least our end of the Brian Clough Stand did – Moussi unleashed a powerful drive from 25 yards out, and as it went past a despairing dive from Ward it ricocheted off the stantion and back across the back of the goal – giving it the appearance of striking the post and in from a certain angle (those of you in the Trent End and Main Stand could probably see clearly it was heading wide).

However, it was increasingly difficult for Forest to craft chances – Earnshaw cut a lonely figure up front with no real link play between midfield to attack (or often between defence to midfield).  Sunderland dominated further and Stokes started to find inroads down the left side, with Chambers frequently out of position through his attacking duties, and it was from here that he was able to find time and space to pick out an excellent assist to Richardson’s emphatic finish.

Shortly after when bursting through he should have laid Chopra on with a clear sight of goal from close range, but he opted for greediness on this occasion and Wilson was able to backtrack to tidy up.  A couple of late half-chances came for McCleary, who nudged the ball over an onrushing Ward but agonisingly just wide of the goal, and shortly after Sinclair was able to dispossess Ward on the goalline, but couldn’t quite fashion anything in the shape of a cross or a shot to take advantage of the prone goalkeeper.

Higginbotham was withdrawn with no replacement, presumably due to injury, leaving the visitors with only ten men – but it didn’t really make much difference as the Black Cats were content to play the game out and Forest didn’t really seem to have the guile to take advantage of the extra man – and so the game ended; it was disappointing that there wasn’t more excitement, but it was encouraging that the Reds made a decent showing against a strong – albeit not playing at full pelt – Sunderland team.

The earlier excitement at being back at the City Ground was quelled somewhat by some of the concerning features of the game; but there was plenty to be heartened by too.  I can’t wait for the season proper to begin, because at least then we’ll know what is a genuine tactical decision and what is perfectly reasonable pre-season tinkering and experimenting.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was unable to make it down to the Everton preseason friendly in person – however picked up an email this morning from a friend who did venture down to Trentside to take in the game.  His comments seem to tally with those I’ve read around the forums and other match reports, but it’s heartening reading, and does make me a wee bit more exciting about the season which is so close to thrusting itself upon us…

… also, whilst searching for an image, I couldn’t resist using this one of Jason Lee playing against Everton for us, despite it having the most tenuous of relevance to the story!

Alright mate,

Did you go down last night?

I thought although it was a friendly and played at a slow pace we knocked the ball around well.

I was impressed with Stephen Hughes. He is a good player at Championship level and is capable of doing what we bought Lennon for except he is several years younger and more mobile.

I liked Moussi as well. I thought first half he looked a little lost and appeared clumsy but as the game went on he seemed to get more into it and he is very strong.

Earnshaw looked bright and eager but I thought Lewis was the star. He ran the show for me. He still tends to over do things on occasions but he has got talent there is no doubt about that. I just wonder how long we can keep him for.

Great news that we have signed Joe Garner. It was no coincidence that Carlisle’s better form started towards the end of the 2006/07 season when he signed then their promotion push went off the rails a bit when he got injured in the second half of last season.

From what I have seen of him he not only has pace, skill and can finish but he has that aggressive streak in him that some of our players sometimes lack. I just hope he isn’t going to be cursed with injury.

The concerns I do have is that Smoulds may feel that he has to play Andy Cole, big name player and all that, when his best days are behind him. I’m not saying that he hasn’t a role to play but at his age it should be coming off the bench and not as first choice striker.

My other worry is that Smoulds still sees Chambers as a right back when his best position is centre half despite his early season form last year. I think he would get found out at Championship level. Last night when he came on for Brecks, he went to right back and Perch who is probably the more natural fullback went into the middle. Now it may have been to give Perchy a bit of a breather as he had been up and down the wing all night as there was no winger in front of him due to the 4-3-3 system but we’ll have to wait and see.

I must say it was great to be back at Fortress City Ground and I can’t wait for the season to start properly now!!

Heartening stuff; it certainly echoes the sentiments I’ve heard from lots of Forest fans that Stephen Hughes has demonstrated he’s worth offering a contract to – as well as general levels of impressedness about the new signings and players from last season alike…. tick, tock, tick, tock… not long left, I wonder whether there will be any more signings out of left field?  Rumours around Ben Watson are fairly unsubstantiated as yet – Hughes of course is a probably addition… I just want the season to start!

As we know, Forest (with a couple of trialists, former Arsenal and most recently Coventry City midfielder Stephen Hughes – who played the first half, and former Dundee United and capped Polish goalkeeper Grzegorz Szamotulski – who didn’t play tonight) have been training in Germany for the last week or so as part of their preseason preparations.  This session came to a conclusion with a friendly against Offenbach Kickers, which saw Forest triumph as winners with a scoreline of 1-2 to the mighty Reds!

Garath McCleary and Arron Davies provided the goals – as Smoulds took the opportunity to play around with his squad, fielding nineteen players over the course of the game; with new signings Cole, Moussi and Earnshaw all making their debuts.  It’s a promising start to the campaign, particularly if you look at Offenbach’s recent scoring record – their last few games have seen them triumph with some impressive scorelines.  It will be interesting to read what the travelling Reds fans made of the game upon their return.

I do struggle to get too excited by preseason games (incase you hadn’t noticed the dearth of posts on here!!), despite my yearning for the football season to get started properly (hey, only a few weeks to go now!); next up it’s Burton at the Pirelli, followed by AFC Telford, Everton, Curzon Ashton, Sunderland and then Notts County which leads us neatly up to the season opener against Reading on 10th August.  I might find myself tempted by the Everton game, I must admit – but beyond that excitement is still very much in the ‘building’ stage for me.

In terms of signings, it’s been a bit quiet – although it would seem that Hughes is being given an extended chance to impress in midfield, and there are strong rumours coming from Polish sports media that Szamotulski is set to sign too (which will be fun for Colin Fray to learn!).  Joe Garner continues to be linked strongly, and it wouldn’t be a transfer window worth anything if Leon Best wasn’t mentioned a couple of times.  Robbie Savage is, I hope, a Derby-started joke that some slow-witted rumour-mongers have taken up.

Oh yes, and Agogo finally actually signed for Zamalek after all the shenanigans, so cheerio Junior and thanks for your pre ACoN efforts last season!