JJ Off To Join Forests First Team

Transfer deadline day today and JJ is one of the first big moves moving from Newcastle to Spurs for £8m to join up with fellow ex Trickies Dawson and Reidy, oh if only they still played in the Garibaldi. Rumours are that we get a percentage of the fee, what that is varies wildly depending on where you read it, some say 5% others upto 25% (most unlikely). I've been wondering is this a percentage of the whole fee or just a percentage on the profit Newcastle make on Jenas? Which given that we sold the lad for £5M won't be much but hey ho every little helps at the moment, lets hope the money is reinvested in the team.

Some excellent news today, seems that Stokes manger has been on the beer recently and decided in a drunken moment that fat, lazy, moneygrabbing, couldn't give a toss, useless Scouse Bastard Rogers would be a good addition to the team (I don't like him if you haven't already guessed)!!! Unfortunately it's only a trial with a permanent move possible if he impresses, with the Stoke boss saying
"Alan has come and we are going to have a good look at him. He has good experience and John Rudge can only say good things about him. But, he's got to be better than what we already have. I have a responsibility to the young players at the club to make sure they get a chance as well and we have to consider them as well."

Unfortunately the chances of Rogers being better than the club rat at Stoke are very slim so expect to see the useless twat frequenting the pie shops of Nottingham again very soon.

Thats More Like It

At last we've found out how to score again. Great result winning 3-1 away at Gillingham today will all 3 of our strikers scoring, first Johnno then Dopey and finally Spence getting in on the act after coming on as sub for Johnno. The new lad didn't even make it on the bench for some reason, apparently he was back in
Nottingham doing some extra training.
I wasn't there today but I was in Nottingham visiting my parents so at least I got to listen to the game on the radio and it sounded like a much better performance by the Reds. Let's hope we can build on this now with a win at home to top of the table Brentford on Saturday. It's a shame our match against Bristol City, which was supposed to be this coming Tuesday, has been cancelled. They seem to be struggling at the moment (they could only draw 2-2 at home to Franchise today) and now would be a good time to play them I reckon.
Today's result puts us in 15th position only 4 points off the top, let's just hope we can build on this win and start heading towards the right end of the table.
Finally congratulations to Notts County who's 2-0 win over Bristol Rovers today put them top of the League 2 table.

A Striker at Last

Finally we've signed a striker, something we've desperately needed for a long, long time. Whether he'll turn out to be the answer to our prayers is another matter but at least Megson has recognised we have a problem and taken action before it's too late.



Eugene Dadi has joined us today on a free transfer from Tranmere Rovers. Looking at his stats on Soccerbase he can get goals, he's by no means prolific but that may be down to the service he's been getting (and of course the class of service at Forest is second to Ummm about 80 odd other clubs!!)
Here's his stats Eugene Dadi. 25 goals in 44 starts for Tranmere isn't bad really, hopefully he and Johnno can forge a decent partnership up front (I say Johnno but you just know that Taylor's going to get picked to play with him!! Ah well can't have everything I suppose

Megsons Comments

It was being reported after last nights game that Megson had been critical of the fans for reacting the way they did (particularly in that bastion of honest journalism the Nottingham Evening Post). Gary has responded to this by posting his own comments on the official website, refuting the claims that he had a go at the fans. I say fair play to him. The man has gone up in my estimation after these comments and I only hope that he can be the one to turn our bunch of overpaid layabouts into something resembling a football team. Furthermore shame on the Evening Post, a paper that is for the people of Nottingham should not need to resort to such tactics in order to make more money at the news stand. To be fair to the Post it's not just them that seem to go in for this lazy journalism, where inventing stories is much more preferable to actually going out doing what journalists are supposed to do, the amount of times I've read one of the big national papers to find a story about Forest which is so blatantly full of lies and obviously written from some pub in London is untrue. Hey ho who needs to get out to investigate a story when you've got the internet to do it for you. Right I'll stop ranting now!
Megsons comments follow:

"After reading today's Evening Post Opinion article, I would like to take this opportunity to qualify one or two things

"I would never have a go at the Club's supporters who, I agree, are long suffering and incredibly loyal.

"Their support is highly regarded by everybody at Nottingham Forest but most of all by myself as I've said repeatedly since I took the job in January.

"The comments that I made last night are from my own hurt, anger and frustration at losing games and being in this predicament.

"I didn't think the crowd's reaction was "over the top" and what's more I certainly didn't say that. It was fully expected and my reaction at half-time and afterwards was every bit as angry and despairing as the supporters.

"My anger is that if a team can play with the work-rate, effort and enthusiasm that it did in the second half, it should be doing that all the time.

"I take full responsibility for everything that goes on at Nottingham Forest. I do accept criticism and at the moment expect criticism.

"What I don't expect is our local newspaper trying to drive a wedge between us - myself and my players - and the most important people at the football club, our supporters.

"For the paper to try and curry favour to sell a few more copies is pathetic but not at all unexpected."

We're Low Now But God There's Still A Long Way To Fall

How the hell has it come to this?? Losing 3-2 at home to the mighty Macclesfield, they're 91st in the league, haven't won yet this season and yet according to our official site were by far the superior side!!!

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH MY CLUB????????????????

I don't even know where to start tonight, this really has to be sorted out and soon. We can't wait till January things need to start happening immediately before we find ourselves in the fourth division, and judging by whats happened tonight we'd struggle in that divison also.

Forest 0 Scunthorpe 1 (Nope thats not a misprint!!!!)

I really Don't have anything to say about this game. I'm disgusted with what I'm seeing out there at the moment and feel completely depressed. SO for more in depth reviews go to the following two blogs

Trent End Talk (Forest)

Mist Rollin In From The Trent(Forest)

All I can say is this is already starting to look and feel like last season. We're dominating teams but we seem incapable of finishing them off (this is how last season started, we played Ipswich off the park then but couldn't score against them and slowly things started going down hill).
All I can say is we need a striker quickly, someone to pay alongside Johnno and hopefully get him back to the form he's capable of.
Sort it now Meggos before it's too late.

Return of Brian Laws

Scunthorpe are in town tomorrow. For the first time ever in the league we are actually playing Scunthorpe United, hard to believe really. At least we get to welcome Brian Laws back to the City Ground, maybe he could put some shelves up for us while he's here! It sounds like they're going to be bringing a decent sized following with them as well. This is what is going to make this league so difficult for us this season, most clubs we're playing will see this game as they're cup final,a chance to put one over on the once great Nottingham Forest and in front of a huge crowd as well. If I'm coming across arrogant its not meant like that but the facts are that clubs in this league want to beat us, their fans want the opportunity to rub our noses in it and although it may not mean much now they can say they beat the team that was once champions of Europe.
We really need this win tomorrow, although its not desparate yet some fans are already talking about calling for the managers head if we don't win!!! how insane would that be?? The reason we're in this mess is because there has been no stability at the club for god knows how long, so no matter what happens we have to give Megson time to turn this mess around. It may not happen this season but changing managers once again will not solve the problem it will only make things worse.

SIr Brian

Not much to report on from the Reds today so I thought I'd mention this, something which is long overdue. Apparently we're now a step closer to having part of the A52 (road that runs between D***y and Nottingham) renamed Brian Clough Way. About bloody time too, this man did wonders for both cities and I think it's the least the respective councils can do to honour the great man. I'm just hoping they get round to it sometime before the 10th Anniversary of his death! Can't believe how long its taking just to rename a road!!

Jenas and The Morons at FIFA

What kind of idiots are in control of the world game? Fifa warn FA about downgrading red cards
It's absolute insanity, the referee has been man enough to admit he made an error in sending Jenas off so the Red card got rescinded but as far as FIFA are concerned JJ should still serve a ban!!! WHAT??? Weren't Newcastle punished enough by having to play out the game against Arsenal with only 10 men?? Nope obviously that's not good enough for these muppets, despite the sending off obviously being wrong Newcastle should be punished again. The mind boggles!
Let's hope The FA are sensible enough to tell FIFA to shove it.
I guess FIFA don't keep too close an eye on the lower league game in England becuase they never said anything about Rune having his red card rescinded and not serving a ban after the Walsall match!!

Bradford Reserves 1 By Far The Greatest Team Reserves 4

Well this certainly made a change tonight, met up with the lads from the West Yorkshire Supporters club for a drink before the match, then drove off to the ground and parked inside the stadium, bonus!!
Strode into the ground (for free) got me programme for 10p (ok programme is probably stretching it but a bit of paper with the teams on anyway).
Before the match we were hoping that Rogers might make an appearance, the plan was to stock up on chocolate bars and hope he got to take a throw in in front of us so we could walk over and offer them to him, but one glance at the team sheet dashed our hopes. We put out quite a strong team, which wouldn't have looked out of place in the first team. Full line up as follows
1 Gerrard
2 Perchy
3 Gippo (Padula)
4 Beaumont
5 Fernandez
6 Roberts
7 Friio
8 Boppy
9 Johnno
10 One Decent
11 Evo

We started out pretty poorly allowing Bradford to take control of the game. The team seemed unwilling to try and play football resorting to hoofing it up the field or crossing it from way out rather than trying to get behind the defence. One thing I did notice with it being a reserve match is how loud Gerrard shouts, he was constantly screaming at the players telling them where to go. Was great to see Lester back and he had a decent enough game but he doesn't quite look fully fit yet, needs to have a few more games under his belt yet and maybe a place on the subs bench in the next week or so, saying that though he was linking up well with Johnno on a few occasions the final ball just wasn't quite right though.
Today was the first time I'd seen Gino play also and he certainly put in a few crunching tackles, at times he just seemed reluctant to get too far forward and take on the full back, when he did get in the Bradford half he'd cross the ball way too early (a common failing at Forest). He also seems to have a knack of getting caught out of position, playing in the centre and allowing the Bradford right winger way too much space to run at us. Evans had a decent enough game putting in some hard tackles (some of them made me wince when I heard the noise he made as he connected with the player)he also scored 2 decent goals, both from free kicks.
We were soon 1-0 down to Bradford and not looking like scoring, in fact Bradford were all over us and I couldn't see how we could break them down. They took their goal well, Gerrard was off his line and the Bradford player lobbed him from about halfway inside the Forest half, was a really well taken goal. Then near the end of the first half we got a fortunate free kick just outside the box. Up popped Evo to curl it into the bottom right hand corner just a few minutes later Bopp made it 2-1 (unfortunately I didn't see this as I was cheering Daley as he warmed up, it was also the only thing Bopp did all game I can't even recall seeing him involved at all before or after the goal).
Second half and a much improved Forest performance, we were totally in control and had 2 more goals another Evo free kick and a well taken header from Friio (although I thought the Bradford defence was pretty weak defending it)
Daley played out on the wing for most of the second half, only moving up front when Johnno went off and I must say the lad looks class, quick and got some great touches on the ball. Given time this lad will definitely be a star at Forest. I'd also like to say well done to Perchy who had a very good game, he must be back in Meggo's pans shortly (also the way he was bossing Daley about, telling him where to go really impressed me).
All in all was an enjoyable night out, made a change to be able to watch a match without being too concerned about the result and just being able to concentrate on the football.

Forest Hit By Injuries

Unfortunately to add to the debacle that was Swindon, Forest have come out of the game with 2 players injured.Even more unfortunate neither of them is Gareth Taylor!!
Danny Cullip and John Curtis are both receiving treatment for injuries and could be out for a couple of weeks, not a great start then, we can do without injury problems.

Tomorrow night I've got my first 'home' game of the season. Off to see Forest reserves away to Bradford. meeting up with a load of lads from the West Yorks supporters club then off to the game where hopefully will get to see some entertaining football and maybe get a look at this Weir Daley lad. I'll post a report on what I thought of the game when I get back.

Swindon 2 Inept Reds 1

For starters let me make it clear that I didn't go to this match. For various reasons I'm having to cut back on my away following of the Reds, one of the main ones being the complete inability of the players to match the fans commitment to the cause. My last away game was Coventry towards the end of last season. A mid week game which was make or break for Forest, over 4000 Trickies made the journey that night and the players ran out to an amazing reception, the noise coming from the away end was phenomenal considering the pathetic performances we'd seen that season. The reponse from the players? Nothing! No guts, no desire, no fight. They just rolled over and let a poor Coventry team take them apart. I walked out after 70 minutes and swore I would not waste my time or money travlling away with this team until they could show the same pride in the shirt that I and my fellow fans have.

After the Walsall game it sounded as if some of that fight and pride was returning and I woke up on Saturday wishing I was making the long trip south to watch them. Unfortunately based on what I've heard the players have reverted to type, not trying, not caring and allowing a poor side to take them to pieces with ease (for a more comprehensive report see Mist Rolling in From's site Mist Rollin in From The Trent).

I'm trying not to get too down about this, it's still too early in the season. I never expected us to come into this league and run away with it like some people suggested. However I do expect us to give it a damn good go and hopefully make teams scared to play us.
So how do we solve this problem? God knows, it's been hanging around for quite a while now and the solutions still seem the same as they did last season.
1) Get players in who actually give a damn and will show some pride in wearing the garibaldi.
2) Get in a decent 20 goal a season striker (not some clueless excuse for a footballer who we then make our captain).
3)Drop Gareth bloody Taylor.
4) Oh and maybe practice corners and free kicks in training, bit contoversial I know but may just work!!!

Return of the Prem Yawn!!

Well judging by all the hype on the radio, in the papers and on the tele the real football season starts tomorrow. The majority of us in the country that follow the other 72 league clubs obviously don't count. The boring pantomime that is the Premiership is all that matters in the football world apparently. Personally I just can't get excited about the Prem, it bores me. I'll watch the occasional game on Sky and maybe watch Match Of The day when I've got nowt else to do but there is just no excitement in there. We already know the 3 teams that will be challenging at the top for the title, and it is highly unlikely that anyone will break into their ranks to challenge, we've also got a pretty good idea who's going to figure in the relegation struggle. All the rest of them have to play for is mid table mediocrity, how demoralising must that be, going into the season knowing you have nothing to play for?

Back to Earth With A Bump

Not going to post much on the match tonight cos I've got it on me (and I didn't go so need to get all the info off mates etc). Needless to say we went to Walsall and lost 3-2, nowt new there can't remember when we last beat em. Oh and we also had our keeper sent off, this when we've just been fined for having a poor disciplinary record last season, great!! Anyway from what I've been told the Ref was decidedly dodgy and the sending off was a bit of a disgrace. Could do with going to Swindon on Saturday and getting a result now to get our confidence back, the one thing we can't afford after last season is for the lads heads to suddenly drop. For what it's worth at this stage of the season here's tonight's table with Forest lying an unimpressive 10th

Coca-Cola Football League One Table
P GD PTS
1 Oldham 2 3 6
2 Walsall 2 2 6
3 Swansea 2 2 6
4 Gillingham 2 1 4
5 Port Vale 2 1 4
6 Chesterfield 1 2 3
7 Brentford 1 2 3
8 Barnsley 2 1 3
9 Southend 2 1 3
10 Nottm Forest 2 0 3
11 Bradford 2 0 3
12 Huddersfield 2 0 3
13 Scunthorpe 2 -1 3
14 Bournemouth 2 0 2
15 Franchise FC 2 0 2
16 Doncaster 2 0 2
17 Tranmere 2 -1 1
18 Rotherham 2 -1 1
19 Bristol City 2 -1 1
20 Blackpool 2 -2 1
21 Hartlepool 2 -2 1
22 Yeovil 2 -2 1
23 Colchester 2 -2 0
24 Swindon 2 -3 0

E I E I E I O!!!!!!!!

Yes, come on!!!!! First day of the season today and we started with a 2-1 win against Huddersfield.The football was by no means that entertaining but it's the result that counts and we really needed to get off to a good start in this league.
The day really was one of ups and downs, started off watching the cricket and England wickets were tumbling and you just got that feeling that yet again we were going to throw away a commanding position and lose. Someone forgot to tell Flintoff though cos he was hammering the ball all over the place, despite having an injured shoulder. At the same time Sheff. Utd. were beating Leicester 4-1 which certainly brightened my day up (hate the blue scum).
The game itself certainly wasn't the best, the football was pretty poor at times and we looked lightweight up front (nowt new there then). On the plus side our defence looked pretty solid and some good crosses were coming from the midfield, just a shame we couldn't put them away. Maybe I'm being a bit unfair, there were a lot of new players in the team and it takes a while for everyone to gel. But at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, we got the 3 points thanks to Dopey and Johnno.
Get back to the car to catch the final scores and D***y could only draw at home with Brighton, can this day get any better? You're damn right it can England decide to tear through the Aussie batsmen leaving us with only a few more wickets to get tomorrow and level the Ashes.
God I love the first day of the season, life just doesn't get any better than this.

"We're only here for a season
Here for a season
We're only here for a season"

Nearly there

At last we've fibally made it through the drab summer months and tomorrow the new season is upon us. Surprisingly given that we're going to be playing in the third division I'm actually quite excited and really looking forward to my trip down tomorrow. In order to build myself up even more, I went back to look at one of my favourite sites from last season

The Real Nottingham Forest Supporter

It basically did a rather humorous review of each match as the season went on. And the one that sent a tingle down my spine at the time and still does today is the one for the Burnley match. We'd just won 1-0 and had to go to QPR the week after and win to stand any chance of staying up. I'll reproduce the review here just in case it's disappeared by the time anyone gets to read this.
And this is why I love this club so much.
COME ON U REDDDDDDS!!!!!!!!

APRIL 26th 2005 - NUMBER 32 - FOREST FANS 1 BURNLEY 0


Don't cry, don't sigh, don't whine or whinge, don't listen to the faded dreams of the old nor the ignorant fury of the young, feel no shame, no sorrow, no regrets, no envy, ignore the patronising sentimentality of strangers, ignore the cynical rants of cowards and conspirators,
don't bend, don't break, don't stumble now the road is hard, don't turn away...

No words. No tears. No surrender.

QPR v NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Saturday 30th April

Show them whose club it is.

England in Control

Amazingly at the end of the second day of an ashes test England haven't yet shot themselves in the foot. They've ended the day on 25-1 giving them a lead of 124. Now I don't want to get too carried away here because you just know something will go wrong over the next few days that prevents them from winning it but they've got themselves in a great position to actually level the series and give the convicts something to think about. Hopefully they can keep it up and couple this with 3 points for the mighty Reds tomorrow and it will have been a great weekend.

2 'New' Signings

Well we've signed 2 players this week (well one of them is just siging a new contract). Danny Cullip has signed from Sheffield United, the lads a Central Defender and I reckon could be a decent signing, Warnocks players tend to have a bit of fight about them.Whether he'll be ready for Saturday is another matter, I think the best he can hope for is a place on the bench at first while he gets settled in.

The other one is John Curtis and the less said about him the better, personally I'd rather have seen the club show him the door. The offer of a new contract has been there since May and Curtis has sat there waiting to see if anyone else was interested in signing him, unfortunately no one was so he had no choice but to come and play for us. I think Megson should have given him till mid June to make up his mind, if he's not committed to playing for us then he shouldn't be in the team we had too many players last season who were just going through the motions and picking up their pay checks and look where that got us.

On a positive note looks like there's going to be a good crowd for Saturday. Huddersfield have sold their allocation of 2,500 with the possibilty of more being made available to them. Forest have sold about 17,000 and with people who turn up on the day and buy a ticket we're looking at a crowd of over 20,000. Pretty damn good for a third division side, maybe the board will realise one day what great fans we really are.