FA Cup - Forest 1 Weymouth 1
I don't follow Nottingham Forest because I enjoy the football they play. I don't really enjoy watching football, as a sport, very much at all. It has its moments, for sure, but as a sporting spectacle I think it's terribly overrated. Give me a couple of hours of hurling instead, please!
Football is above sport though. It's above mere entertainment. It matters.. perhaps in the most annoying and superficial way imaginiable... but it matters. You get the thrills and the spills... the emotion and the passion. When Forest were beaten by Sheffield United in the play-off semi-final a few years ago it was one of the most amazing two hours of my life... the experience was awe-inspiring, but it was never about entertainment.
Football is a soap-opera and I keep going and watching because I want to know what happens next, and I want to be there when it happens. There was a time when I was thinking about being there when Forest won trophies or beat great teams... now it seems like it's all about waiting for the next low point. Weymouth play in the Conference South.. I guess that must be three leagues below Forest. Today they were every bit as good as Forest. None of their players earn £100k a year... whereas I imagine that almost all the Forest players are taking home salaries at least at that level. I guess it's not really acceptable.. in fact, I know that it's not. But I'm used to it. I expect it. I fear what will happen next week when Forest travel to Weymouth for the replay. I won't travel with them, but I wish I could. And I wish I understood why.
 Hurling: Sport |
A while ago I wrote here about Roy Keane and his rantings about his ManYoo chums. Well it looks like the powers that be at ManYoo have decided that they're better off without the likes of Roy stirring things up. It's funny, but at a time like this I think they should have been doing all they could to keep Keane around. Mr Modern Premiership Footballer needs, once in a while, to be booted up the arse - and if ManYoo are going to dispense with anyone not towing the party line then their decline will only come sooner.
And about the Reds
In the week that Nottingham Forest were put on the shortlist for the BBC's 'Greatest Team of All Time EVER' thing Forest managed to nudge past Weymouth to secure a second round FA cup tie at Chester City. Although the encounter was shared with the nation through the medium of the telly, I was unable to enjoy the game as I was otherwise engaged (watching the utterly marvellous sigur ros, in case you're interested) so I really can't comment. The unofficial line, however, is that we were a bit rubbish.
More exciting news came with the signing of Nathan Tyson, a striker, from Wycombe. Only a short while ago I gave short thrift to the prospect of this signing coming off.. but, it seems, Mr Meggoo has proved me wrong and attracted yet another impressive looking player to the club. Time will tell if he's going to be our saviour... if normal procedure is followed then he'll look handy for four games before sinking to the same god-awful level of everyone else. Mr Meggoo can sign as many decent strikers as he wants... none of them is going to score any goals unless there's someone around to pass the ball to him. Good luck Nathan Tyson though.. there's 20,000 people who need a hero. |
 So AngryRoy has sharpened his teeth and bitten some mighty chunks out of the not-so-great and the not-so-good of former soccer greats Manchester United. It's about time that someone inside that club did it, because Sir Drinkathon sure as hell isn't listening to anyone on the outside… whether he'll listen to his captain, or simply ignore him and ship him out of the club, remains to be seen. One of the first Nottingham Forest matches I ever attended was a 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United at the City Ground in 1989. Ferguson was under pressure because he'd spent big and returned little. Forest were riding high with the likes of Stuart Pearce, Nigel Clough and Des Walker taking us to numerous cup finals and top 3 league finishes. Legend has it that the day we beat Manchester United 4-0 was the day that a young Roy Keane signed for Forest from Cobh Ramblers in Ireland for £20,000. It might not have been the exact date… but it was around that time. The last great managerial career to come to a sad end was that of Brian Clough. Roy Keane was there to see it at first hand. Brian was drinking too much, his transfer dealings were erratic, he was delegating too much to his staff, his tactical nous was all gone. I wonder if Keane is also seeing the end of another great career. Back in 1992/93 Keane gave everything on the football pitch to try and salvage some dignity for Brian Clough… today he's consigned to the sidelines and perhaps he sees that the only way for him to help Ferguson is to be honest and forthright. I don't think it will do any good though. All Manchester United seem to have are two brilliant teenagers and a squad full of hype and reputation. With Keane fading away as a playing force, there's nobody to ignite the passion needed to turn that club around. The manager certainly doesn't have it anymore.. just compare him to the other Premiership manager in Manchester (co-incidentally, someone who, with Keane, also tried to salvage pride from the last days of the Clough dynasty) who presently sits above his aristocratic neighbour in the table - that may not last for long, such is the inequitable share of wealth in the city, but it's surely a warning sign. Of course, I hate the Salford Glazercocks, so I find this whole thing very funny indeed. Uber-Redz 1 - Bradford 0
Once again we saw Forest produce a home display that was, in equal parts, impressive, adequate and bloody awful. Still… the result was the right one and it keeps us in touch with the promotion scene in spite of our regular bouts of utter shiteness. This game saw a league start for the man they call Bopp (because that's his name). In spite of being German, Eugen Bopp is a darling of large sections of the Forest support. He arrived at the club as a 16-year-old who joined Paul Harts brilliant championship winning academy side (alongside the likes of Jermaine Jeeenas, Michael Dawson, Andy Reid and David Prutton). Young Eugen was an outstanding youth player who's never quite put his talent to effective use in the first team (although he was doing quite nicely before some thug in a D***y shirt broke him a few years back). Anyhow, Bopp is the most gifted footballer on the books of Nottingham Forest.. he could be another Lars Bohinen or even another Nigel Clough* if he could just figure out how to make his ability work for him and the team, and put in the effort needed to survive in a tough league. I've always hoped that Mr Meggoo would give Bopp a run in the side to see if he can achieve something… and with Krissy Commons knacked out the side for a couple of months it could be 'now or never' time for Eugen Bopp. Here's praying...
* this, in case you're wondering, would be a very good thing! |
Let's start with the good news, in which Brighton appear to have been granted permission to build a new stadium. They've been harping on about this for years.. perhaps with good cause, but i must admit that I did tire of hearing how 'massive' a club they'd be with a proper ground.. it's going to hold 23,000 people lads... it's hardly Old Fvcking Trafford.
In other good news, Alan Shearer (pictured left) had his gob smashed in by Grimsby defender Justin Whittle during the mighty mariners 1-0 defeat at the hands of Newcastle in the League Cup on Wednesday. Obviously I don't approve of misplaced arms and elbows on the football pitch... but super Al' has been dishing it out for donkeys years, so you'll excuse me if my moralistic bones took the evening off. Anyhow, I'm sure there's a crack team of doctors working hard to ensure that there's no lasting damage.
What of Nottingham Forest then? Mr Meggoo has had a mixed response from fans and the media to his decision to allow a couple of fans into the dressing room to 'have words' with the players after the Yeovil stuffing on Saturday. The Grainuad pitched a response at a decent level, if you ask me. When we were all wondering what Meggoo would do next (fans in the first team squad, perhaps?) the club decided to go nuts and try and sign Iron Nathan from Wycombe and/or Grzegorz Rasiak from Spuds. This, of course, is typical of the lack of ambition at Nottingham Forest... I can't understand why we'd waste time on these players whilst Terry Henry is stalling on a new contract at Woolwich... obviously sitting by the phone waiting for the call from Nottingham.
But seriously... Nathan Tyson recently turned down a move from Wycombe to Sheffield Wednesday because he didn't want to move his family oop north. Unfortunately, Nottingham isn't really very far from Sheffield so I'm not sure why anyone thinks the decision would be any different.. unless, of course, Tyson just thought Sheffield was a bit minging but didn't want to say so. Although Nottingham Forest are, right now, a much crapper version of the Sheff Wednesday 'big club, gone a bit shit' model, Nottingham is an hour closer to Wycombe and does have newer trams.
This weekend Forest will entertain Bradford City. Although, when I say 'entertain' I mean 'probably scrape a very ugly win against'. The prediction here is a 3-2 win as the disparity between home and away from gets more and more baffling. |
I'm an angry young man. Perhaps Mr Meggoo is as angry as me... but I cvnting well doubt it.
Yeovil 3 - Cvnts 0
I didn't go to Yeovil. It's a long way away. And besides, this game was a sell out because around 1,500 Forest fans had snapped up the tickets for this historic game. But... historic in what sense? Well the preamble was all about it being the first ever meeting between the two clubs - Yeovil even produced a commemorative badge to mark the occasion. Opposition fans in League One like to sing 'You're not famous anymore'.. but I beg to differ. Anyhow... perhaps the real historic thing about this game was not apparent until the final whistle. Is a 3-0 mullering at the hands of Yeovil the lowest point in the history of Nottingham Forest?
Well let's not be too hasty here. Forest were beaten 2-1 by Woking during the week in out first ever game in the LDV trophy... but the side that played that game was essentially a reserve/youth team hybrid. Also.. we can look forward to a first round FA cup tie at home to Weymouth.. I'll be looking closely on the betting odds for that one.. as Weymouth might be worth a flutter.
For the moment, however, let's look at Saturday. Forest didn't just lose 3-0. They were hammered. It could easily and deservedly have been four or five nil. Well done Yeovil... they've come a long way up the leagues (as far as we've gone down) and I don't begrudge them this. I used to live with a Yeovil fan and he was lovely. Perhaps it's a little disrespectful to be so annoyed at this result... the two clubs are in the same league, after all.
The thing is... Nottingham Forest shouldn't be losing to Yeovil. Not because we used to be European Champions... not because we're from a big city, not because we get 20,000 paying suckers supporters every week. It's because we've got so much more money than them... proportionally speaking in League One we're *way* richer than Chelsea are in the Premiership. It's not that I think that we have a right to beat teams like Yeovil... if the playing fields were level then I'd take this result on the chin. However... the fields are not level at all.. ours is relatively paved with gold.
If I buy a shirt from Asda for £3 then I'm not going to complain if it's unwearable after three washes. But if I go to Saville Row and pay big bucks for a tailored shirt then I'm entitled to be spitting nails if the cuffs fall off after two weeks. Nottingham Forest have a rich owner who doesn't seem to want to keep hold of his money.. we have a major international sponsor who is paying way over the odds for the honour of having their name on the shirt.. we have a large and loyal army of supporters who spend significant amounts of hard earned cash following the team around the country. Nobody here is paying peanuts... but we're getting monkeys. The manager can see what is wrong (we know this because he's forever talking about it in interviews) but doesn't seem able to do anything about it. The players have all played well at higher levels.. but just can't impose themselves against teams who just want it more.
I still maintain that Forest can get out of this league with room to spare if they can merely raise their game to something bordering on adequate. There's still every chance that they will. Right now, however, I'm not sure I want them too because they'll get plaudits that they simply haven't earned. |
| » What a refreshing change |
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Vieira Issues Apology (source)
The French national team player excused himself for the terrible performance against Switzerland during the weekend. Following France’s disappointing 1-1 draw against the Swiss national team, Patrick Vieira apologized for his own personal performance.
“I was terrible throughout the whole first half, and in the second half I did not improve a lot: it did not take me long to understand that it was a bad day."
Good work there paddy. This is something I want to see more of… followed by the ceremonial handing back of over-generous pay packets.
Oct. 11th, 2005 @ 01:05 pm
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| » Flying High |
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Sarfend United 1 - The Mighty Forest 0
I've not watched Forest on the telly for years. Since we got booted out of the Moneyship we've had plenty of star appearances on the box - only it seems that the Sky outside Broadcast team have taken a liking to Nottingham (the ground? the pubs? the trees? the mythical citywide ratio of 4 women to every man?) and so, as a season ticket victim holder, I've not had the benefit. Yesterday, at long last, a pointless and distant away fixture was shared with the nation. I'd waited so long for this, it was inevitable that it'd be absolute rubbish.
And so it came to pass. Sarfend were the best team we've played this season - unsurprisingly given that they'd won seven games on the trot - and Forest didn't appear to feel like doing much at all. There's no point saying anything else about it. Oh, except watch out for little James Perch.. the latest to follow David Prutton, Jermaine Jeeenas, Andy 'Figo' Reid and Michael Dawson out of the once-prolific Forest academy. He's quite good and will undoubtedly be playing for Spuds reserves before the end of next season.
Celebrity Love Kicking
There are numerous things I hate on television. Football, charity, celebrity shows, reality tv and anything that's on on Sunday evening are all high on that list. Nonetheless, I sat down to watch last nights Celebrities v Legends match on Sky telly. A team of celebrities (many of whom I'd never heard of) took on a bunch of retired players which included a BEVY of former Forest stars such as Des Walker, Viv Anderson, Chris Woods and DerbyDean Saunders. It was great stuff. The Legends won 2-0 but the game could easily have had six or seven goals in it.
It's worth pointing out that the celebs side wasn't just a bunch of former pop singers and quiz show hosts. They put together a quick young team. Many of them had been good junior footballers, at least one has played semi-pro football and another has allegedly been offered a pro contract with a League club. Oh, and one of them has several Olympic sprint medals. So it really came down to pace vs class - and class won out… though only after getting the likes of John Barnes (fat), Peter Reid (tw@t) and Matt LeTissier (slow) out of the way.
Peter Beardsley (who doesn't appear to look any different to when he played) was a delight to watch (from a footballing perspective, naturally) Neville Southall is the size of a small Welsh town, but he was tremendous. David Batty could still be playing at a high level if he wanted to. Des Walker played the full 90 minutes and did a grand old job looking after a guy who can run 100m in ten seconds. He also scored bonus points for inflicting a nasty head injury on Jonathan Wilkes (whose celebrity credentials are that he shared a flat with Robbie Williams, and made a crap pop single that nobody bought). There was a bit of handbag throwing between Nigel Windowburn and some scally off of Brookside, which was nice too. Oh, and Chris Woods saved a Darren Campbell penalty near the end.
This season I've watched a hatful of Forest games, a handful of Premiership games, a few internationals and a reality TV game. Celebrities vs Legends was the best of the bunch by quite a distance (unless, I suppose, you count the amusement factor of watching NornIron beat Svengland). I reckon that there's a lesson or a message there somewhere - but I'm arsed if I know what it is.
Oct. 10th, 2005 @ 10:19 am
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| » England, there!! Marvellous. |
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England have qualified for the world cup.
May I take this opportunity to congratulate mr Sven and his brilliant squad not give a monkeys ass. Unless something bonkers happens between now and the summer, we can rest assured that England will go there, blunder their way through the group stages, get a deceptively comfortable looking win against Botswana, and then limp out like a sick puppy as soon as they play someone with class or spirit. Perhaps the USA will do it, just to rub it in. Sven and the boys blame the officials, the pitch, an injury or anything else that is easier than accepting that the £5m manager and his team of equally overpaid numpties simply didn't want it as much as their opponents. Again. I've seen it so many times before, and I'm determined not to get emotionally invested in it this time around.
Hopefully the Irish will scrape through. If I've got an official alternative nation to support, then it'll be easier to ignore England. Oh... unless you factor in those cvnting flags that will be strapped to every cvnting ford focus in the country for the summer. My only consolation is that my car probably won't get keyed by a bitter scotsman.
Oct. 8th, 2005 @ 11:31 pm
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| » Beckham, there. Marvellous. |
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I missed the England game today. Was it good?
Ah well... apparently you can't argue with Sven's record in competetive internationals, so perhaps I'd better shut up.
Oct. 8th, 2005 @ 07:14 pm
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| » Nifty |
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source: football commentator
Oct. 6th, 2005 @ 11:29 am
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