For the first time this season, the mood at Forest is not great. January, or more precisely the last few days of January, were not good days to be a Forest fan. We lost a game to Derby, ending our nineteen game unbeaten run, and our near yearlong unbeaten away run.
I didn’t go to the game. I was sat in an airport waiting for my flight to Las Vegas (You’ll be able to hear more about my Vegas trip if you download the Left Back podcast). The bright lights, the smell of wine, and cheap perfume seemed to be an anaesthetic to the hurt. A couple of days later, whilst watching Fox Soccer News (who referred to John Terry as a ‘Man Whore’), the hurt from the Derby game was intensified, and this time the lights wouldn’t serve as a distraction, I needed the whiskey to drown, and the beer to chase my blues away. After a night out, returning at around 8am, the transfer window was closing. There, for all to see were the words we didn’t want to read. Nicky Shorey had signed for Fulham. Shorely some kind of mistake. He’s a Forest player. Martin O’Neil is a Forest man. Why didn’t he come to Forest? In his tenure here we only conceded one goal. He was a rock, and possibly the best left back since a certain Stuart Pearce wore the number 3. Could this be the difference between promotion and, well, not promotion?
It’ll be ok, though, we’ll sign Victor Moses. Oh. He’s chosen to go to a side twice outplayed by our little brothers over the Trent.
So, where are we? Well, we’ve dropped to third in the league. We’ve signed nobody, and failed to hold on to one of the classiest players to wear the garibaldi in the last ten years. Newcastle and West Brom have both strengthened. Not a great place to be. Although, I’ve just seen on Sky Sports News that Andy Carroll has been beating people up, so maybe he’ll go to prison, and Newcastle will be weaker than they were. I’m grasping at straws to be optimistic, as you can probably tell.
How can a side who dispatched QPR comfortably 5-0, suddenly lose away at Derby and scrape a 2-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday? Against QPR we looked Premiership class, even without Shorey. Against Sheffield Wednesday we were, for vast periods, the second best team on the park, playing like it was a glamorous FA Cup tie for us, rather than playing like a team looking at promotion.
Is there unrest at the club? Billy cancelled his Evening with…, giving rise to speculation that he has fallen out with the club over both the transfer window and the club failing to support him over his claims that he was kicked by Nigel Clough. Why was Raddy on the bench against Sheff wed? Rumours of his unrest about not being given a permanent contract could be true. Have the wheels fallen off? I don’t think so.
Derby meant we had lost one game in 21 (a number I was constantly chasing on my Vegas jolly up). We’ve still not conceded more than 2 goals in a game all season. We still took three points from one of the worst Forest performances all season. Derby are still looking at relegation, and we’re only 2 points off top.
We followed up the away defeat with two more away defeats (Coventry and Dungcaster), which is rubbish. We got what we deserved from the games in terms of performance, even though we witnessed the inaugural ‘refereeing’ debut of Leicester born Amy Fearn nee Rayner, and I do use the term ‘refereeing’ loosely. It was a special moment to see the first female take charge of a league game, but a less special moment when her display set back women in the game by 50 years. Never again should a woman take charge of a football match. I have nothing against women, I love women in fact, however, if her performance was indicative of women in the game, then they should definitely be kept away from the game. Or perhaps women with a real understanding of the game could become referees. I’d like that. In fact, male or female, that refereeing display was atrocious. I’m seething just thinking about it. Did I mention that she was Leicester born?
Tuesday saw us beat Sheffield United by a single goal at the City Ground. For brief spells the football we have become accustomed to was back. Not for long, though. We were playing Sheffield United, a fixture that usually brings with it a red card for at least one player and a game more akin to the Superbowl than real football. Tuesday was no exception. A scrappy game saw Sheff Utd finish with 10 men after an off the ball incident with Kelvin Wilson.
Perhaps we’ll use the loan window in the same way we did last season, and strengthen with minimal cost. Perhaps we don’t need to. I’m pretty sure Billy knows what he’s doing, and I’m pretty sure Nigel Doughty won’t give up the chance of the £100m pay day to save a few hundred thousand right now. Hold in there Forest fans. We’ll come good, we’ll bounce back and we’ll still be there or there abouts come May.
So, what does the future hold? We are at home to MiddlesboroughCeltic on Saturday. We should be able to beat them comfortably, even if that little bit of doubt is creeping in once again.
As I walked up and down the boulevard I realised that it’s certainly still a three horse race for the Championship title, and we’re certainly still in that race. Keep the faith, Forest fans, and remember, no matter how bad things may look, don’t stop believing, the team needs us to be behind them.
Our coming fixtures are all winnable games, and we can certainly force our way back into the top two, which seems to be the place that the fans want to be. Billy is talking about another unbeaten run, which would be great, and would surely take us to promotion. I don’t know if we have any loan targets, but I hope we do. A left back has to be priority, as we simply don’t have one. We have players who can play there, but it’s still a square peg in a round hole.
As ever, I’d like to leave you with some words of wisdom. As the great Garth Brooks once said, kind of, “Forest, our winning run may be through, but you’ll never hear me complain”. Now, let’s make sure we don’t lose again this season.
Read more from Rich on the Lost That Loving Feeling website
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