Left Brian: October

LeftLion editor-in-chief Jared Wilson is a terrifying hulk of a man. He stalks around the office keeping his thick arms toned by stretching his trouser braces, just in case he needs to give one of the young LeftLion staffers a good clout over a misused semicolon. He strokes his beard and surveys his domain through dark, beady eyes, scanning the rows of desks at LeftLion Tower for signs of frippery or indolence. Many a journalist has experience the hair dryer effect of one of his dressing-downs, and when I notice a black shadow loom up behind me I know it is my turn.

“Walker!” he barks in his gruff baritone. “Where the f***ing hell is this month’s Left Brian column?!” “I didn’t know one was due, Sir,” I say feebly. “It’s right near the end of the month!” he balls. “Get that f***ing piece written today or I’ll let Rich Crouch take over the column like I did the podcast.”

“Yes Mr Wilson, sir, right away,” I grovel as he stomps away to his next unfortunate victim. With sweaty palms and a thumping heart I load up my PC’s calendar. He’s right – it is right near the end of October. How did that happen? The month seems to have flown by, which means I guess it’s true what they say about time flying when you’re having fun -16 points from a possible 18 is my idea of fun!  Let’s face it, most of us would have settled for any kind of position this season so long as it was a) outside the relegation zone, and b) above Derby. But now we’re peeking over the fence into Play-Off Land and getting very tempted to sneak in.

How did this happen? Yes, we did sign a lot of players in the summer, some of whom are very good. But we still began the season without a recognised left back and our new strike force hasn’t exactly set the world on fire – they’ve looked promising as individuals and some nice partnerships are emerging, but we haven’t any Kevin Keegan-style goal feasts yet.

Somehow though we’ve been rampaging up the league. All but two of our league victories this season have been by a single goal. That doesn’t compute with a weak defence and an abundance of attacking talent. But that, and the fact that game-for-game we’ve taken more points away than at home, points to two areas where things are working – we’ve got a quality goalkeeper who can keep us in games and we’ve got a quality midfield able to create chances in even the most combative of games. 

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Our last game against Crystal Palace was the perfect example. Okay, we didn’t win. But Palace came at us like the Vietcong, using their native terrain to their advantage and a ruthless amorality to gain the upper hand (quote from Paul Anderson in hospital after that challenge by Clint Hill: “You weren’t there man! You don’t know what it was like!”). The Forest of last season would have waved the white flag and jumped on the first helicopter out of there, but the Reds stuck it out as if Richard Nixon was the manager. Our tenacious midfield got us back into the game with McKenna and McGugan opening up the chance for McGoldrick to score the equaliser, then Lee McCamp pulled off some fantastic saves to keep things level.

I wonder how Billy McDavies feels about things now. Naturally he’ll be delighted at how his young team are progressing, rising to a variety of challenges. Again the Forest of last season would never have turned the game against Peterborough around, nor would they have refused to give up on the three points at home to Barnsley. We know this for certain because those are the exact things they didn’t do last year and the reason they were in a relegation battle for most of the season rather than chasing the play-offs.

But since the summer Billy has done nothing but talk down the play-offs. On a number of occasions he’s openly said he doesn’t want to get promoted this year and with the memory of his Derby team being crowned the ‘Worst Team in History’ (wouldn’t it be great if they had to attend a ceremony for that!) then you can hardly blame him. But what can he do about it? If Forest keep picking up points at the current rate then we’ll soon be in the play-offs and you would expect things to improve as the season goes on, what with players returning from injury, the team gelling more solidly and a few new signings in January.

Unless he starts throwing games (and I can’t see that happening), come May it could be a case of “Oops, I did it again!” as Billy once again gets a team promoted before they’re ready. I know I’m getting a bit ahead of myself and there’s every possibility October’s form will prove to have been a fluke (we certainly rode our luck to some of those slender victories). But this year Forest are proving to be a really gritty outfit and very hard to beat, and you can’t fluke that. Billy has turned them into that.

Working under the tyranny of Jared Wilson, I know what it’s like to have to produce on demand. The LeftLion team is also a gritty outfit for this reason and earlier this month it scooped a top prize at the Nottingham Creative Business Awards. Nothing motivates you to succeed more than a scary man shouting at you and I reckon Billy does pretty well on the scary side once those dressing room doors are closed. If he wants Forest to leave play-off qualification until next year, he might have to learn to be a little meeker. For the meek shall inherit the earth, but they probably won’t get into the Premiership. 

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