beat that Rory Delap
Friday, February 24, 2012
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)