Friday, February 24, 2012

Forget inverted wingers, goal line technology, post game handshakes or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.... the future of football on the international stage was unveiled during the recent friendly between Japan and Iceland



beat that Rory Delap

Cant see the wood for the Forest


A combination of bad luck, bad decision, bad players, and bad performances has left Nottingham Forest in freefall for most of the season so far. Right from the off with the Shteve Mclaren debacle and including the unfortunate and shockingly premature death of former owner Nigel Doughty the off field events have often eclipsed what has been going on on the pitch. However it has not taken much to achieve this with a run of poor results and performances highlighted by a lack of goals only Fernando Torres can compete with at the minute. The fact that Chris Cohen (a player who has been sidelined since the East Midlands Derby in mid September) is many fans preferred choice for player of the season shows just how far the team has fallen from its previous two promotion challenging campaigns. Many of the problems stem from the regime change at the start of the season which saw a number of supposedly high profile, experienced (read old) players brought in on reportedly high wages (Greening, Boateng, Reid, Derbyshire...) and when it comes down to it they have so far failed to show any of the form which has previously seen them established in the premier league. Combined with a dip in confidence and belief amongst the squad which had been punching above its weight under Billy Davies, the uninspiring Steve Cotterill has failed to create any sort of momentum. Indeed the only thing to cheer in recent months has been  9-1 and 5-0 victories over Wigan and Southampton respectively. Unfortunately for all concerned these wins came in the FA Youth Cup and the man who scored 8 of those goals, Patrick Bamford, has since been shipped off to Stamford Bridge for a million quid after 12 minutes of championship football.

However last Saturday with a 2-0 win against beleaguered Coventry City, Forest against all the odds and with a huge hand from some financially incompetent owners on the South coast, climbed out of the relegation zone. With new recruits Elokobi, Guedioura, and Higginbotham impressing in their first couple of games could this be the start of an uphill climb following a monumental fall? Most likely no. As they say, “One Swollow does not a summer make” and with an away game against undefeated at home Birmingham City, us Forest fans will most likely have to endure a rocky end to the season. On the plus side Coventry and Doncaster look even worse than us and you could probably fit Portsmouth’s squad in a mini cooper these days but if we don’t start putting together a consistent run of results its likely that come the last game of the season we will either already be looking to League one or will be hanging on to our championship lives.