Through the seasons before us..

An Ando diving header was a mere consolation..

Portsmouth – 2
Nottingham Forest 1

A frustrating afternoon for the Reds saw their mini-run of two wins halted, and our hosts to continue their recent good form with their fourth consecutive win.  It pops us back down to 13th in the table, albeit still only three points off the playoffs – it’s still as tight as a gnat’s chuff in the middle of the Championship.

Surprisingly, given some of the players available to him, Billy opted to make no changes at all to the side that defeated Ipswich at the weekend, although with a slight tweak to the formation in a slightly more defensive look – with a bench positively bristling with attacking options…

Camp
Chambers    Morgan    Wilson    Gunter
McKenna
Anderson    Cohen    Majewski     McGugan
McGoldrick

As ever with our ‘fluid’ (or disorganised?) midfield, you can interchange almost any of the players over the course of the game as ever!

The Reds had a good start to the game – and the first chance fell to the man in form McGugan after a defence-splitting ball from Majewski.  Even after his first opportunity was blocked by Ashdown, the rebound fell again to Lewis who this time met no player-based obstacle but wasn’t able to hit the target, putting the ball into the side-netting instead.

Portsmouth looked dangerous on the break, a long throw from Halford went right across our six yard box, which could’ve been messy – Mullins also should’ve done better when shooting from inside the box but he only managed to put the ball over.  Despite the Reds having the better of the play early doors, it was the home side that took the lead.

One chance won the home side a corner, which was taken by Liam Lawrence (why on Earth we didn’t go for a player of his calibre on loan I’ll always struggle to understand) and found Ibrahima Sonko who should have been more effectively marked – his header went flying past the goalline-bound Lee Camp giving the increasingly-bearded ‘keeper no chance.

The Reds showed some good resolve though, and it wasn’t long before they had fashioned an equaliser.  Chambers brought the ball forward and found McGugan – he took the ball on and played an excellent cross into the box which found Paul Anderson, of all people, bursting into the box to connect with the ball with a full-length diving header.  An excellent finish and a well-deserved equaliser.

A further chance for Forest saw Chris Cohen square the ball to Lewis from eight yards out, but the midfielder totally mis-kicked – continuing to defy his recent form!  Despite some nice passing moves, often (how many times do I write this?) the final ball and/or finish was missing – which was precisely where Portsmouth threatened to hurt us.

The half finished with some concerted pressure and a series of corners from the home side which ultimately came to nothing.  On balance the Reds had just about edged it, but as ever succumbed to some lax defending which Portsmouth were able to punish with relative ease.  Frustrating, and not exactly a new thing this season!

Pompey started the second half in much more lively fashion – on-form David Nugent was very close to putting his side into the lead with a curling dipping effort which had Lee Camp backpedalling but fortunately for us was just over the bar.  Utaka was causing problems with his pace too, being reasonably marshalled by Wilson.

Fourteen minutes into the half Billy withdrew Majewski and put Dele Adebola on, which didn’t really alter the pressure that Portsmouth were exerting, which culiminated in efforts from Lawrence cleared by Wilson, and Camp again backpedalling from a Nugent attempt to concede a corner.  The warnings weren’t heeded though, and Sonko returned the earlier favour with a cross to Lawrence who smashed it into the net from inside the area.

Billy responded by chucking on Earnie for McGoldrick, and the Reds did start to look a little more positive – a cross from Chambers found a diving header from Cohen which ended up just wide of the goal – it was a brief respite, with Mokoena feeding the ball through to Utaka, Camp quick off his line this time to save with his legs.

Dex was our final substitute who received a fairly tense reception from the home fans due to his Southampton connections – he replaced Anderson with around thirteen minutes left on the clock.  He nearly made himself more unpopular too, a decent cross from Gunter finding him in the box, and his effort brought a reasonably routine save from Ashdown.

On the break again Nugent was denied by Lee Camp, McKenna had made a mistake to lose possession which saw the home side break very quickly culminating in Nugent’s effort saved by Camp diving low to his right.  At the other end Chambers should have equalised for the Reds with a free header from 12 yards from a Cohen freekick, but he put it wide.

At the death even Campy was joining the Forest attack when we’d been awarded a free-kick, ultimately it came to nothing which saw him legging it back as Pompey threatened to break forward, the final whistle preventing what could probably have been the killer blow.

All in all, a disappointing result – although Portsmouth had chances to stretch the scoreline, we too missed chances.  On balance of play it’s hard to begrudge them the win (moral and financial conduct aside of course).  The response of the 2,300 Forest fans who’d made the long trip was positive, and the players seemed to appreciate it.

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Nottingham Forest – 2
Ipswich Town – 0

A thoroughly satisfying performance from the Reds gave them a comfortable 2-0 win over the Tractor Boys yesterday.  Usually even a two goal lead can feel pretty tense with the Reds, but  the makeshift Forest defence underwent very little in the way of scares and held strong for a deserved clean sheet.

It was good also to see the wee fella back on the touchline after his absence through illness.  Other returnees were on the bench – Nathan Tyson and Robert Earnshaw who were both thought unavailable appeared on the bench (although in Earnie’s case for ‘psychological reasons’ according to Billy!).

Forest had to change their line-up due to Bertrand’s suspension, but few would have expected to see the unforced change upfront which saw Dexter drop to the bench in favour of David McGoldrick.  So we lined up like this:

Camp
Chambers   Morgan   Wilson    Gunter
Cohen   McKenna    Majewski    Anderson
McGugan
McGoldrick

The Reds started the game looking very positive – Gunter, looking decent as a makeshift left-back, put in an early cross to chambers at the back post – he nodded it back towards Cohen rushing into the box but Fulop was quicker and got to the ball first before the midfielder could apply the killer touch to it.

At the other end it could’ve been a disastrous start for Lewis as he gifted the away side possession in midfield but fortunately Carlos Edwards was offside so unable to do us any actual damage.

We took the lead on around 12 minutes – and it was a lovely team move, a delicious throughball from Majewski set Cohen loose down the left, the midfielder put in a cracking cross right into the danger zone where David McGoldrick was lurking to sidefoot the ball into the top of the net giving Fulop no chance at all.  Lovely goal, and good to see McGoldrick get of the mark for the season.

Raddy was again the architect of another chance – the little midfielder tricked his way brilliantly past two Ipswich players to get into the box and put a cross/shot (with more emphasis on shot, I feel) just wide of the far post from a tight angle.  It was looking good, but of course with the Reds there’s always that niggling doubt that creeps in.  It nearly came to fruition..

Colback had a great chance for the visitors – he shot goalward from a crowded area and beat Lee Camp, but not Luke Chambers who stopped it brilliantly on the line.  To compound our visitors misery the rebound fell to an Ipswich player who again shot goalward, again beating Camp, but again not able to beat Chambers on the line.  Some outstanding defending there.

Just before half time Cohen was fouled by Leadbitter.  As the freekick was spotted up around 35 yards out I turned to my neighbour and said “Lewis will try to shoot here, and probably put it into the upper tier.”  I was right on one front, a powerful drive with a vicious last-minute swerve saw Lewis thunder it into the top right corner – and awesome strike that even left a few Ipswich fans applauding.

So half time came with Reds fans in high spirits – with much reminiscing about past freekicks, many fans seemingly ranking McGugans’ latest as comparable (if not better!) than freekicks by the likes of Pearce, Metgod and Van Hooijdonk that we’ve been lucky enough to have witnessed on our hallowed turf.

Having had Luke Chambers do his dirty work in the first half, Camp had his first save to make early in the second half – denying Tommy Smith’s effort.  Moments later he was clattered by a late challenge from David Norris – the referee saw fit to not punish it – I’m not sure how hurt Camp was but did endure a good few minutes of treatment to his right shoulder.

McGugan had a tricky run down the right ending in a cross which was a little too powerful for Anderson to reach.  Majewski was the first player to be withdrawn to a great reaction from the fans – Tys replaced him and went up front with McGoldrick.  Tys was immediately in the action, and was hauled down by McAuley in the area, the referee didn’t give a penalty though.  He’d been so determined to not be a ‘homer’ he had become an ‘awayer’!!

McGoldrick was the next player to make way – this way for the Moose – again to a great ovation from the Reds fans.  Ipswich were belatedly starting to get into the game, a freekick from Leadbitter necessitated a save from Camp at the expense of a corner, substitute Connor Wickham too brought another save from him after beating Gunter.  The shot actually snuck through his legs meaning an undignified scramble to stop it sneaking over the line.

Forest’s final substitution saw man-of-the-moment McGugan make way for Dele Adebola – the loudest ovation yet, for the on-fire midfielder and latest cult-hero entering the fray.  Tys was looking lively, a run down the right ended in a shot but he hesitated a little too much and his eventual effort was blocked by Gareth McAuley.

Cohen too had a late effort which was on-target but straight at Fulop, and the five or so minutes of stoppage time were consumed mostly with the Reds controlling possession until the referee eventually blew for full time amidst speculation that he’d forgotten about full time for a little time!

A thoroughly pleasing result and performance – admittedly our visitors posed a very limited threat upfront, and seemed rather short on ideas – having said that, their rare moments of danger were dealt with well – although Chambers’ heroic goal-line clearances certainly had more than hint of good fortune about them.

That puts us tenth in the league, just two points away from the play-offs though, although if Leeds can beat Cardiff tomorrow they could drop us down to eleventh.  More importantly, with Derby losing it puts us a point ahead of them again which is always a good thing!

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Lewis nets again to get us the points...

Nottingham Forest – 1
Middlesbrough – 0

Well it certainly wasn’t pretty, but it was a most welcome three points nonetheless after the weekend disappointment at Barnsley.  With Billy still signed off with a virus Ned once again took to the technical area to deploy the wee fellas’ instructions as we faced newly managerless Middlesbrough in what the bookies would’ve had us believe was a clash of the promotion favourites.

A reshuffled pack saw Raddy and Anderson restored to a side which had a more balanced feel to it than the Barnsley debacle, and it was a customary sublime goal from in-form Lewis McGugan that was enough to give us the spoils despite occasional scares from the struggling visitors.  So the starting line-up looked something like this…

Camp
Gunter    Morgan    Chambers    Bertrand
Anderson    McKenna    Majewski    Cohen
McGugan
Blackstock

Although McKenna aside in the holding position, the midfield was pretty fluid as we’ve come to expect (fluid when it’s working well, shapeless when it’s not working so well!).  The Tuesday night crowd was buoyed by a student ticket offer which was well taken up, and whilst the satanic 666 Boro fans is a small number, it’s not a bad effort on a Tuesday night from so far away.

It was Lee Camp – sporting a Peter Sutcliffe-esque beard – who was the first keeper into action though.  A shot from McDonald would’ve been fairly routine but for a wicked deflection off Luke Chambers meaning ‘the Ripper’ – as a wag near me dubbed him for the game – was forced into a diving save at the expense of an early corner for the visitors.

Forest did start to build a bit of possession, but were struggling to break down a dogged Boro side who were working hard to close us once we’d hit the final third.  A cross from Bertrand opened up half chances for Blackstock and then Gunter on the rebound, but there was very little clear-cut for the Reds and the fans were starting to get characteristically impatient.

At our end Boro were fashioning chances though, Lita flashed a dangerous ball across the goal with nobody on the end of it – whilst on a break a Lewis mis-kick fell kindly for Dex who perhaps didn’t realise quite what an opportunity he had (I think he was looking for the offside flag), and stabbed the ball across the goal and wide with Steele bearing down on him.

Middlesbrough should’ve taken the lead after this – after some fairly clumsy defending from Forest the ball fell invitingly for Lita – in acres of space, no more than ten yards out with the whole goal to go for.  He put it wide.  A poor miss, and really that signalled the end of the positive play from the visitors in the first half.

The Reds almost took a magnificent lead before half time – a lovely one-two between Majewski and Bertrand saw Raddy unleash an absolute piledriver with his left foot, showing great technique, only to see his shot rebound off the underside of the bar and into play, before being scrambled out for a corner.  It would’ve been one hell of a goal.

Forest continued to pressure without too many clear cut chances as time was running out in the first half.  We didn’t really want the whistle to come, but it did and gave Boro an increasingly desperately needed lifeline to regroup in the dressing room.  The combination of their early chances and our late ones probably meant half time all square wasn’t all that unfair.

The second half began with Forest still in the ascendancy.  A decent knock over the top by Blackstock found Cohen who must still be rueing the tame shot he managed straight at the keeper.  The Reds fans didn’t have long to wait for something to warm them on the winterish night though, and it was that man Lewis McGugan again delivering the goods.

Lewis had picked up the ball and was fouled down the left hand side.  The freekick was a few yards outside the box and wide, my neighbour said “I bet Lewis will fancy a crack from here”, and he was right – the in form midfielder smacked an absolute peach of a shot through the crowded area, past Steele and inside the far post the give the Reds the lead.

The game became scrappy now – Forest looked shaky at the back, often opting to try to play their way out of danger when a hoof would suffice.  Neither Wes nor Luke were anywhere near the front of the queue when God was handing out ‘hap’, so they should both definitely opt for safety-first when they’re being harried by opposing strikers.  There were a few hair-raising moments for sure.

The referee was a bit rubbish too, but in a generally harmless way – until he decided to book Bertrand for timewasting.  The leftback was waiting to take a throw-in as Dele was ready to come on for Blackstock, the jobsworth booked the defender before then gesturing for the substitution to take place.  Hapless bastard.  That’s four bookings for Bertie now, so one more and a suspension looms.

Dele was immediately involved in his inimitable hustle-and-bustle style – although the header he managed from Cohen’s cross was an easy save for the Boro keeper.  Lewis was next to be withdrawn for The Moose – the midfielder naturally receiving a standing ovation from the appreciative Forest fans for his contribution in the game.

The Reds have this worrying habit of making substitutions when defending a setpiece – this was one of those occasions and it’s always nerve-wracking.  A header from Wheater almost caused a bit of trouble before Camp was able to gather it.  Forest weren’t just sitting back though, and Dele again was on the end of a chance which he made too easy for the keeper to collect.

McGoldrick was our last substitute for Majewski, who’d had a decent game in midfield, however Middlesbrough were starting to press forward, and there was a frankly terrifying moment of ball-pinging-around-a-crowded-area syndrome before we were mercifully able to get it clear after Chambers had done well to close down Boyd.

With four minutes of stoppage time there were a few futile attempts at keep-ball by the Reds in the corner, in the end the final moments petered out into a series of scrappy exchanges from both sides – with the clock running down McGoldrick really should have either hit the target or played the ball across to his waiting colleagues when he was put through but wide – but still.  The whistle came eventually, and it was a big relief!

It wasn’t pretty – but it wasn’t likely to be.  At times the Reds tried to ping the ball around nicely – and there were moments of genuinely good football, but too often passes were played behind or into the feet of players rather than ahead of them, so we couldn’t always profit from some nice work from many of the lads.

Plenty of positives to take though – as well as warning signs, a clean sheet is more than welcome but we do look shaky at the back.  McKenna deserves a lot of credit for filling in some gaps at the back particularly when dealing with pacy wingers threatening to exploit our wandering fullbacks.  If Boro had more confidence in themselves they would have proved a much sterner test I feel.

However, we should feel positive – despite their awful record on the road I don’t think Boro are as bad a side as their position suggests, and obviously a change in management can throw up surprises.  After recent frustrations it was good to see Forest tweak their tactics and almost start to break through a team doggedly defending.

That said, we were still wasteful with some of the chances that came our way – which is why the return of Robbie Earnshaw can’t come soon enough for me.  Whilst the contribution of Lewis has been invaluable we can’t keep relying on him for goals – and our only other reliable source of finishing comes from our little Welsh wizard.

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Lewis is still finding the goal, but his team-mates need to replicate!

Barnsley – 3
Nottingham Forest – 1

With Billy off sick but supposedly in charge of team selection it was maybe surprising to see something verging on the experimental in the Reds’ line-up – a 4-4-2 formation is perhaps not that revolutionary in aspect, but to make up the midfield of four central midfielders probably is.  Cohen on the right wing, McGugan on the left.

They’re not wingers, are they?  Just as we have spent many months with an obvious deficiency at left back aside from loan intervenees, it’s starting to worry me we are risking the same problem with proper wingers.  Tys is a converted striker, Anderson seems to lack confidence, and McCleary is deemed not ready – as for left wingers, we don’t have any!

So the line-up looked like this, with Big Dele introduced on the strength of some promising appearances as a substitute as well as a recent reserve-outing against Sheffield Wednesday in which he notched a hat-trick.

Camp
Gunter    Morgan    Chambers    Bertrand
Cohen    McKenna    Moussi    McGugan
Blackstock    Adebola

A bold move, maybe – with Earnshaw’s injury still causing a problem and Tyson succumbing to a knee injury we are with few options.  Perhaps now our lack of options when stretched a little are starting to show themselves as a problem for progression.  As noted in the preview, our unbeaten run was a flimsy boast at best – and now it’s over.

Another afternoon of possession and chances to score, the familiar story of Forest this season continued as we were unable to convert these to chances whilst our hosts gave us a lesson in how this can be achieved.  A brief flicker of hope from Lewis McGugan netting was extinguished as the home side scored again when Wes was deployed as an emergency striker.

It was just four minutes on the clock when Barnsley first scored – all in all, not a great start.  Trippier was given too much space on the wing and was able to pick out Hammill in the box, his effort didn’t convert but – as we seem to struggle with of late – the rebound fell for Doyle who was able to put the ball in from close range to give the the Tykes the lead.

Twelve minutes were on the clock by the time the Reds created a meaningful chance – Cohen did well to get into a crossing position from the right hand side and put a ball in towards Adebola who couldn’t quite beat Steele to the ball.  The Reds began to dominate possession without creating much – a McGugan cross forced a corner, Barnsley came close from a freekick by Hammill just off target.

Just before the break Forest came agonisingly close to equalising, with Dexter Blackstock heading against the crossbar with the ‘keeper beaten.  A long range effort from Wes perhaps flattered to deceive the travelling Reds fans, a late scramble from Steele aside it was always likely to be off-target meaning Forest went in at the break behind.

Barnsley started the second half strong – a quick break from ex-Derby thug Jay McEveley found Trippier whose effort really should’ve been on target – luckily for us it wasn’t.  At the other end Lewis beat his man and smashed the ball across the face of goal but – as ever – we had nobody gambling on the far post so the chance went begging and gave Barnsley a goal kick.

The home side got their cushion after Blackstock had brought down Lovre in the box, former Forest striker Gray made no mistake from the spot – his kick easily evading Lee Camp’s dive to put the home side 2-0 up – perhaps a shade flattering, but you can’t really fault their ability to take their chances.

To give us more pace/threat Adebola and Moussi were withdrawn for McGoldrick and Anderson.  McGoldrick almost got off to the perfect start but saw his shot hit the post, he then laid on the opportunity for McGugan to score – a decent cross from him finding our main goal threat who beat a couple of players before smashing the ball into the corner of the goal.

Camp was very alert to prevent an immediate peg-back from Barnsley – having to tackle to prevent a shooting chance before clearing to Wes, who played through toward McGoldrick whose volley was just wide.  As Forest continued to pressure the home side, our last throw of the dice was to throw on Majewski for McKenna for the last eight minutes or so.

Bertrand wasted a good opportunity after McGugan had played him through but the fullback could only find the stand, eventually the desperation stakes saw us push Wes up front as an emergency striker in a 4-3-3 line-up – which enabled Barnsley to hit us on the break with a good ball from Hammill finding Butterfield who was able to slide the ball under Camp from an angle.

In stoppage time Dex brought a good save from Steele, but ultimately with a two-goal deficit to make up it was really all rather academic unfortunately.  A disappointing trip to Barnsley, which seems to be becoming something of a habit – could Oakwell be a new bogey-ground?  Possibly!

Certainly the game served really to remind us that without Earnie we really do lack a player who can finish off chances (McGugan mitigates a little for this – but doesn’t get that many chances – could he play as a striker?), and we lack the final ball – largely, I’m still convinced, because we lack proper wingers – or when we do play them insist on putting them on the wrong side.

Ho hum, a quick chance to make amends with Middlesbrough visiting on Tuesday.  We’re down to 15th in the league, hopefully Leeds can give Strachan’s Celtic B Team a tough run around this evening in preparation for their visit to the City Ground in midweek.

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