Through the seasons before us..

I type this at the end of my second season of blogging about Forest, looking forward to the heady heights of Championship football next season after an unexpected automatic promotion!  (Come on, how many of us had any faith in April 2008 that it would still happen?!).  

From the tiniest of acorns has sprung something larger than I could ever have anticipated, picking up thousands of hits some days and loads of regular commenters, the site begins to almost have a community feel from it.  The feedback I’ve found around the web has been broadly positive, with the odd criticisms which I’ve taken note of as well.  

My original hope was to provide some kind of fans-eye documentary of the rebirth of Nottingham Forest into some degree of prominence, and after a season of stuttering perhaps this dream is going to be realised as we celebrate promotion with talk of investment, competing and a desire to get back to the top flight.  Of course, any Forest fan worth their salt would take these dreams with a healthy dose of cynicism, but it could be an exciting time, or it could be another false dawn.

Below are assorted previous incarnations of this page (along with an ‘update log’ of notable things that might have happened along the journey).

I started this little blog shortly after the 2006/2007 kicked off.  Foolishly I had hoped a little bit that it would be a triumphant journal of the beginning of our climb back up the leagues after years in the Wilderness.   Alas it transpired I’ve been inadvertantly chronicling the events leading up to officially the lowest ebb in our history.

There was never really any plan behind this site, just a place for me to ramble away about Forest and vent my creative urges.  Since it has been picked up by a few news sites and a band of regular readers and commenters, it’s become an area for discussion and debate, both between Forest fans as well as with those of other clubs who inevitably feature from time to time in my writings.

It’s been an interesting journey so far, and as I type the 2007/2008 season is underway – and at this early stage Forest are showing little sign that this will be the year, but it’s early yet and things may change!  Below is the original “About” I penned around a year ago when I began this project. 

Here’s the original blurb when I first set up the site:

I thought it would be interesting, more as a self-indulgence than anything, to keep a journal of a season of following Forest. Since I procrastinate too much I’ve already missed the start of the season with setting this up, but not by too much!

This time is a turbulent one in Forest’s history – we find ourselves at the lowest ebb in living memory of the club – it will hopefully be interesting to look back upon what will hopefully be a record of how these fortunes might change, or might not.

Whilst I try to be unbiased, I make no apologies for the biasedness and blatant football-related prejudice that is an inherent part of supporting a team!

Please do feel free to make use of the commenting facility should you wish to add your thoughts to anything written here.

Cheers!

Update: 13th November 2006 – It’s been about three months or so, and after nearly 30,000 hits, more comments than stories, and a general sense of purpose still (I half expected to have got bored by now!), I’d say the site is going well!

Update: 3rd January 2007 - Here we are again – 60,000 hits have been and gone, and commenting is still beating the number of stories – particularly since I seem to have riled a few Oldham fans! Since writing for Left Lion I’ve been getting a fair bit of traffic from them too – which is nice

Update: 15th January 2007 – I’ve had more than 78,000 hits now, which is pretty bonkers – although the interest in the Chelsea game seems to have generated quite a fair chunk of traffic. I’m not sure whether posting on so many Forest stories is sustainable so may be reining back in on the number of posts per day – but well, I’ll see if I can stick to that!

Update: 4th February 2007 – The most notable landmark has been reached – 100,000 hits have come and gone, at least partially thanks to the Nigel Doughty furore on a message board. There’s been a definite slowing in frequency of stories – but then there has been less to write about, with games more spaced out and the transfer window closed.

Update: 16th March 2007 – 130,000 hits or so down, it seems that earlier in the season when optimism was flowing I was able to churn out 2, 3 or even 4 stories a day – lately it’s been one a day if you’re lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view). Whilst it’s easy to rant and moan – I’ve tried to resist doing that too much here as well, I like to think of myself a vaguely rational!

Update: 27th April 2007 – 150,000 is breached! The series of Forest-inspired music I’ve been posting hasn’t really ignited the imagination as I’d hoped, I think I have a more warped sense of humour than most – but nonetheless, a steady stream of visitors as we near the end of the season, I do believe that I can probably chalk this little experiment up as a success story!

Update: 21st May 2007 – well, I’m teetering on the brink of 170,000 hits for the season, as it closes with one hell of a bang courtesy of Yeovil Town FC’s demolition of us at the City Ground.  Despite finishing fourth, I am dissatisfied with this season on the pitch, but have been very pleased with both writing and the reception of the blog, so will continue to work on it in the hope all football fans have that they may finally witness some kind of turn around in fortunes!

Update: 31st July 2007 – 200,000 hits has been breached!  I’ve been deliberately quiet over preseason as generally it doesn’t interest me a great deal.  So in just over a year a big landmark is reached – so I guess if I can hit 400,000 or more before the end of the season then I guess I must be doing something right! 

Update: 27th August 2007 - I’ve altered the initial blurb at the top of this page a bit, as it was out of date.  I’ve also discovered that Leeds have a gigantic online following judging by the amount of hits and comments I end up with whenever a story mentions them.

Update: 19th May 2008 - I’ve not updated this page in ages!  The site goes from strength to strength, easily smashing last year’s hit total with plenty of time to spare.  Again, I’ve updated the blurb at the top (whilst retaining previous blurbs beneath).

Update: 19th July 2008 - The traffic to the site approaches 450,000 hits since conception; which is quite amazing, and significantly up compared to last year’s viewing figures.  All in all, that’s the proof of the pudding really – people are visiting, which is ace.  This preseason I’ve been a bit quiet on the posting front, as I was last year.  Once the season gets up and running properly I’m sure I’ll regain a bit of impetus.