Rip It Up & Start Again

This could be our greatest (if not only) chance to restart the numerous relationships that surround Nottingham Forest, to build bridges & rescind the negativity that has been suffocating everyone that loves this great club.

There are currently broken relationships wherever you look at Forest. The fans distrust the board, have little faith in the efforts on many players & feel the local journalists have let them down. The board seemed to have little (if any) respect for the fans after the complaints & protests of last season (if they ever had any at all, which seems doubtful) & there have been personal attacks on social media sites on some of our local journalists who have probably received as little communication from the club as the fans have, virtually none, giving them little to report unless the club wanted publicity.

So, with a new regime taking control of running of the club, a new season for the players & team management to show their willingness to fight for our cause, a new approach to media relations & a (hopefully) tragedy free season for the fans to support, is this not the blank canvas we should all have been praying for?

Without doubt the negativity that surrounded the club over the last few years has been throttling the life out of all involved. Nobody has been happy with the activities at the club over the last 12 months, we need to build again.

It is these thoughts that suggest the early signs of the Al-Hasawi family will be a great match with Forest. While fans were panicking because the takeover wasn't moving fast enough, Mr Hasawi (or more specifically his wife) posted a photo of his own daughter in a Forest shirt on a social media site. This act most certainly helped ease the fans fears. Someone was out there trying to lead our club forward. Significantly the recently released statements on the Forest website are intended to calm nerves. From the Al-Hasawi family it stated quite clearly they want the fans on side & want to build a bright future (while you could argue 'what else could they say' the simply reply is they could have said nothing. I'm sure many, including the previous regime, would have said nothing.) The fact they said anything at all implies a much more open future between hierarchy & fans.

It was also interesting to see a note from the club warning to ignore any following media speculation.

Very little is known of Fawaz Al-Hasawi so an expectation of big money being spent is perhaps a little hopeful. What we do know is this, he has spent the last decade as president of his local club Qadsia, he has put money into that club to finance a push for success & he has been rewarded with trophies for doing so.

Make no mistake, here we seem to have a man who not only knows how to communicate with fans of a football clubs, he also knows how to reward those fans with successful on the field.

Moving on to the local press, it's fair to say [I believe] that the local press haven't had much in the name of 'breaking news' in recent years. I said recently the last Forest related story I remember being broken on a local media outlet was Darren Huckerby signing on loan a long long time ago. This of course isn't down to the journalists themselves & I'm sure there have been a few stories I've missed, but although they obviously want the big news first, the previous regime at Nottingham Forest were so often on media lockdown there was little for them to report. A 'no comment' is incredibly difficult to expand on without simply making things up. It would seem that is about to change too meaning the relationship between local media and fans can possibly reach a happy medium too.

Last season we had a manager with his hands tied, players under immense pressure, frustrated fans & a new chairman trying to operate a business under circumstances he couldn't possibly of imagined when he arrived in October.

Some of the staff may well leave of course, but whoever remains will be in exactly the same positions as us fans, enjoying a fresh start. The future looks bright, lets embrace it.

Strap Yourself In, The Roller Coaster Is Starting Again

When you look at the recent history of Nottingham Forest, there barely ever seems time to catch your breath before the next crisis takes hold or the next exciting opportunity presents itself. Over the last 6 summers we've had to get over 3 play off failures, 3 managerial appointments (one of which lasted only weeks before a forth manager arrived) & a turnover in players that sees only Lewis McGugan survive from the squad that started the 2006/07 League One campaign.

If ever a club was screaming out for a period of stability it is Nottingham Forest.

You can't suspect for a minute we're going to get it though. A takeover of the clubs seems to be edging closer by the day, a new owner often indicates a change in team management & our squad is so unbalanced that a monumental overhaul of playing staff is unavoidable. So it would seem it's going to be all change once more & our season will probably start with optimism and despair in equal measure around the City Ground. The only constant being a set of supporters who are loyal in the extreme clinging onto a hope.

The front runner in the takeover seems to be a Mr Fawaz Al Hasawi of Kuwait, although he could only be part of a consortium and if we're honest it wouldn't come as a shock if a new name comes right out of left-field minutes before being named as the new owner of Nottingham Forest.

Whoever the new owners of our great club turn out to be, one thing they can be sure of is an excessively loyal (if occasionally demanding) fan base & if there is one thing that loyal fan base can be certain of it's that you better have your safety harness locked down & fastened tightly because the NFFC Roller Coaster is about to reach another seasons apex.

So raise your hands, brace yourself for the excitement & be prepared for another loop the loopy season in the life of a Forest supporter. Scream if you wanna go faster, because supporting Forest is for adrenaline junkies only.

A Brief History Of Nottingham Forest Terror
2002/03 Play Off Defeat
2003/04 Survived With 1 Game To Spare (though quite comfortably in the end)
2004/05 Relegated With One Game Remaining
2005/06 Missed Out On Play Off Place On Final Day
2006/07 Play Off Defeat
2007/08 Final Day Automatic Promotion
2008/09 Survived with 1 game to spare
2009/10 Play Off Defeat
2010/11 Play Off Defeat
2011/12 Survived with 2 games to spare
2012/13 ?

It's been over a decade since Forest fans had a stress free season, but I don't see that changing any time soon, do you?

The Way Forward Is Linked To Our Great History

I grew up watching Forest play a certain way, it wasn't the beautiful sent from heaven Gods own football style many seem to remember it as, but it was quick passing counter attacking football on the floor, it was easy on the eye & entertaining to watch. While I'd love to see a return to that kind of football at Forest (& Steve Cotterill has been delivering a more aesthetically pleasing variety over the last few months) it's not everything.

Since the tragic death of our owner Nigel Doughty, there seems to have been much soul searching going on amongst fans over the way the club should move forwards into an uncertain financial future that will now be based around Financial Fair Play in the Championship. When Mr Doughty first arrived as sole owner, he preached a great deal about making this football club self sufficient, sadly his love for the club seemed to blind him from his initial intentions & he pumped a massive amount of cash into the club to try & achieve his aim of returning his passion to the Premiership. It was sadly an ambition he never realised, & from a man used to getting what he wants that must have hurt a great deal. Mark Arthur recently quoted Mr Doughty as asking "Am I killing the club with kindness?" & looking back over some of the money spent & the manner in which that money was lost, you have to say he probably was. I believe Mr Doughty to have been a decent & honest man who loved Nottingham Forest as passionately as any fan, but was misguided by his ability fund the club. I believe he lost his way.

A look back at my early days supporting Forest shows the way forward in these economically uncertain times. My first ever game was January 1989, it was a Wednesday night and a league cup tie at home to QPR. I was only 15 & not allowed to go to the football because my family were County fans, So a saved up my paper round money and went on my own. The point of this story is to show you some of the players from that day.

Steve Sutton (apprentice)
Brian Laws (£120,000 from Middlesbrough)
Stuart Pearce (part of a double deal £300,000 from Coventry)
Steve Chettle (apprentice)
Terry Wilson (apprentice)
Steve Hodge (apprentice)
Franz Carr (£25,000 from Blackburn)
Neil Webb (£250,000 from Portsmouth)
Garry Parker (£260,000 from Hull)
Nigel Clough (apprentice)
Lee Chapman (£100,000 from Chamois Niortais)

I know football lived in a different economic stratosphere in those days, but that was an entire League Cup winning team team that finished 3rd in what is now the Premiership for just over a million quid (Forest sold those players on for a total of £3,250,000 by the way) , with players signed mostly from lower league clubs along with a smattering of developed youth players and local boys.

When I look back on those days, it's not the trophies that make me proud (though it would be churlish of me to claim it irrelevant) but the manner in which we built that success. Nottingham Forest, at their best, develop their own players along with buying young talented lower league players & then build teams that play attractive football. If Forest are to ever return to the top flight, I feel a return to our routes is the way forward.

We may have been the first club to pay a million pound fee for a player, but both our greatest historical moments & our best chance of a bright future will come from our ability to coach, develop & scout talented players that we can make great.

So, less of the Gary Holts, Nicky Eadens, Matt Derbyshires & Danny Sonners and more of the McClearys please.

The Big If They Do That & We Do This Blog

With just five games to go & the Easter weekend almost over, I would suggest It's time to take a look at who is in the mix at the bottom of the table & take a look at what we can hope/expect to see.

Lets start with the bottom two Doncaster & Portsmouth. They are both already relegated in all but name, sorry but they are. Job done, lets move on.

If we take a quick look at the three teams directly above Forest we have Millwall, Barnsley & Peterborough. The latter two are probably already safe being 7 & 8 points clear of relegation respectively & with Bristol City & Coventry playing each other on Monday it would take automatic promotion form for the losing side in that fixture to overtake them. Millwall aren't quite so certain of safety yet but being 5 points clear at the moment they probably only need one more win to be assured of safety. They should pick that up with three of their remaining 5 games being away at Portsmouth, Ipswich, & Coventry.

So, one final relegation place left realistically & 3 teams fighting to avoid it.

Lets start with the team with most to do.

Coventry currently on 39 pts

Remaining fixtures: Bristol city (A), Birmingham (A), Millwall (H), Doncaster (H) & Southampton (A)

There are obviously two very tough fixtures in there & you would expect a return of zero points from the Brum & Southampton away games. A 4 - 6 point haul from the two home fixtures seems more than plausible as their home form isn't actually too bad (it's their single away win that has seen them down at the bottom). I'll leave the Bristol City game for the next set of fixtures we'll look at.



Bristol City currently on 40pts

Remaining fixtures: Coventry (H), Birmingham (A), West Ham (H), Barnsley (H) & Burnley (A).

Again there are two very tough games in there having to face Birmingham and West Ham & you would say a return of zero points from those is the only sensible prediction while similarly to Coventry there are also two fixtures that could quite plausibly see a return of between 4 and 6 points as I see the home tie v Barnsley as perfectly winnable & the final day fixture away at Burnley would depend very much on whether the Burnley heads are on the pitch or the beech, I suspect the latter.

So that leaves the Bristol City v Coventry City fixture. Having seen both teams at the City Ground recently, I would have to say that despite Forest losing to the Robins & beating the Sky Blues, that Cov were the better side, Bristol City were truly woeful, possibly the worst team I've seen this season. When All said & done, when you look at the recent form, home advantage & team confidence though, I can only come up with a home win. This would give Bristol City 9 points & Coventry 6 by the end of the season.

From there, the maths are simple. Forest are 4 points clear of Coventry at the moment, the teams below picking up 9 (Bristol) & 6 (Coventry) points would leave Forest needing just 3 points for safety.


Nottingham Forest currently on 43 pts

Remaining Fixtures: Peterborough (A), Blackpool (H), Reading (A), Hull (A) & Portsmouth (H)

Again, there are two very tough fixtures in there & you would expect given the form guide & relative positions of the teams, the Blackpool & Reading games look like defeats. Peterborough looks winnable but a draw more likely & so the away fixture at Hull probably offers our best chance of three points ahead of a final day show down with Pompey. Hull have lost all of the last 5 games including defeats to Coventry, Millwall & Portsmouth. It seems the Tigers have given up on their season well in advance of everyone else.

That would have give us the points we need to secure safety by my predictions ahead of our 46th league game at home to Portsmouth. I sincerely hope we have secured safety by then because this game worries me immensely. They will be relegated by then & they could be in the position of knowing had it not been for the 10 point deduction they would have been safe & like the wounded beast that knows it's time has come I expect them to take one final nasty bite. If they 'could' send us down with a win, I expect them to give just a little more to the cause & try to take us down with them.

My final league table for the bottom 5

20: Bristol City 49
21: Forest 47
---------------------
22: Coventry City 45
23: Portsmouth 41
24: Doncaster 36


Far closer than we'd all like, but I think we'll survive by a single point

We Wont Get A Better Chance Than This

As we head into Easter schedule of games, we face a double header against two other bottom half teams, one of which hasn't won at the City Ground in a league game in my life time & an away fixture against a team that has only ever beaten us once, although that was this season.

Bristol City Preview 

The opening Easter fixture sees us take on Bristol City at home, not only a team that hasn't beaten us in any league fixture since 1974 & has failed to take 3 points at the City Ground since 1955 but is also the team we beat 3 - 2 in April 2009 with THAT Dexter Blackstock winner which gave us all hope to staying up that season. The only Bristol City success against us in my lifetime came in the dark days of League one with a penalty shoot out win in the Johnston's Paint Pot, but as it was a draw after 90 minutes & I've deleted that competition from my memory I've decided not to include it (Yes I can!)
 
City haven't won away from home this year, including an FA Cup defeat to league 2 Crawley. They have only scored 1 goal away from home this year & picked up just 2 points on the road in 2012. Forest haven't won back to back games often this season (just twice) & we won't get a better chance than this to do it again.

In 65 league games between the two teams, Forest have a astounding record of 28 wins & 24 draws with Bristol recording just 13 victories. Forest have also outscored Bristol comfortably by 102 goals to 68.
 


 

Peterborough United Preview

  

We follow up that game with an away fixture at Peterborough, a place we haven't played at very often, but also one we have fond memories of & have won each league visit.
 
This one is a very different prospect though, where Bristol are struggling for goals, it's the one thing you're guaranteed at The Posh, they don't draw many at home (won 10 & lost 8) and Peterborough games this season have seen 124 goals in total. Add to that they haven't been involved in a goalless draw all season (how about that for the kiss of death) & you have a great chance of taking points, especially when you consider IF Forest take the points from Bristol City the Posh could well be safe.
 
This is only the 5th league meeting between the two with Forest winning 4 & Peterborough taking the odd win, Forest have also scored eight of the 12 goals this fixture has produced
 

The Future

What we're faced with here, is the potential for the Easter period to leave us all with a very loud, pronounced & sincere sigh of relief. We could, by 16:50 on Monday afternoon be waving goodbye to the season from hell, when anything that could go wrong did, we could exit this season no worse off as a football club.
 
Should we pull it off & should the take over rumours be true, we could be beckoning forward the 2012/13 season with a new found optimism.

A Point, A Clean Sheet & A Small Ginger Dog

At 19:45 last night, after hearing the team news I would gladly have accepted a goalless draw & the single point that would offer. When you look at the opposition & the financial backing they've had & when you consider the utter turmoil we've suffered this season, then taking 2 points from them this season has to be considered positive. 

I couldn't help but feel a little deflated though, but for a positive change rather than the removal of creativity in Majewski & the introduction of the hard working Tudgay, we could have gone for the win, especially with the likes of McGugan & Miller sat on the bench. Seems Mr Cotterill was trying to add a little more steel to the team & as they we held onto the point, I guess we achieved our aim. In our position it's a gamble in every game whether you risk the single point to take 3. In fairness, in an away game against a play off chasing team, safeguarding the point was probably the safer option.
 
When you look at the millions spent this season by the ginger bin dippers this term, you have to say on the evidence on last nights game, they should be disturbed by the return they've had for the financial input, because they looked what their league position suggest they are, bang average.
 
Negative substitutions aside, this 0 - 0 draw saw us move 5 points clear of the relegation places & hit a 3 game unbeaten league run for only the second time this season & embarrassingly, avoiding defeat against Crystal Palace this Saturday will see us hit an unbeaten 4 match run for the first time this season.
 
Looking towards the Crystal Palace game, it's looks a much less daunting task than it did at the start of the year when they were just outside the play off place & ex red Dougie Freedman was looking like the the seasons surprise package. Now they are safe far earlier than they have enjoyed in recent years they seems to have taken their foot off the gas & have won just one of their last six games. This of course, is only the appetiser for the Bristol City home game the following weekend when much could be decided.

A Last Minute Equaliser, But We Got Away With Nothing

On a day when all in garibaldi visiting the City Ground entered the turnstile with renewed optimism, the greatest credit for the day must be that nobody, not players, fans or management allowed that optimism to fade as decision after decision went against us. The more it seemed the footballing Gods were against us you could have forgiven everyone for accepting it wasn't our day & allowing the final 10 or 20 minutes of the game to slowly ebb away.Memories of our visit to the AmEx Stadium came to mind where we huffed & puffed for 90 minutes & fell to a final round sucker punch & even as early as Reid hitting the post in the first half hour it had 'that feel' about it.

 

As time pushed on, as it is legally obliged to do, it started to look more and more like a day to forget. The referee chose to avoid the 'hand ball' rule as Brighton used that particular appendage to control or challenge for the ball time & time again only for the assistant to draw the referees attention to this particular infringement the very first time Forest were guilty of it.

 

Then we saw Chris Gunter charged into & forced off the field of play only for the ref to adjudge this one a 'shoulder to shoulder' challenge and only minutes later we saw Guedioura punished for a less physical challenge & it became abundantly clear that what we had here was a fresh faced inexperienced referee that didn't want to be considered a homer & simply overcompensated. All but the most obvious of Brighton infringements would go unpunished. It was, to use the popular phrase, just going to be one of those days.

 

Poor free kick to give away, Vokes poorly marked, a decent delivery by Vicente & there it is. Brighton lead 1 nil with their only meaningful chance of the game. Bugger!

 

From here on in, it just got silly, McCleary had a shot pushed wide, Guedioura hit the post, Miller hit the post, the Brighton midfield got away with blatant thuggery & Mr Naylor the ref, well, he just kept on getting things wrong. That optimistic vibe that the day started with though, in a break from City Ground tradition, continued unabated. There were no, or very few, groans from the crowd & the only negativity was directed at Mr Naylor & the players, egged on by the sheer force of will emanating from both Guedioura & Reid dragged us kicking & screaming to a pivotal moment, one of those moments that tends to get missed & forgotten in the mists of time.

 

With 20 minutes to go, Greg Cunningham was fouled, It didn't look particularly nasty, certainly nothing compared to the viciousness the Geddy had had to put up with, & after booking Matthew Sparrow for it, Andy Reid became apoplectic at the referee, pointing out some abrasion on Cunningham's face, letting the referee know in no uncertain terms that Sparrow should be off the field & as young Greg got extended on field treatment, Reidy wouldn't let it go, constantly on at the ref, gesticulating towards Sparrow until the ref was left under no illusion, he'd made a massive error & from that point on, every decision that was needed was going to go our way, quite why our players weren't throwing themselves to the ground in the penalty area I have no idea, some sense of fair play I assume that to me seemed unrelated with this particular match.

 

And when the game entered it's closing stages, when the stadium would usually start emptying, the fans stuck with the team & roared them on, the players believed in themselves & kept pushing forward & in those final few seconds it happened, the ball was thrown in, Dexter Blackstock somehow managed to move the ball on & Lynch smashed it in.

 

So there it was, a game we had dominated from start to finish & a game where the officials had chosen to apply the rules differently depending on the regularity with which you play in that particular stadium and I'm left feeling that we'd been cheated by those entrusted to govern the game & deserted by lady luck.

 

When you walk away from a game having scored late on & take something from the game you usually feel like you've 'gotten away with it' but not in this game. Make no mistake, this was a fine Nottingham Forest performance, one I sincerely hope doesn't come back to haunt us at the end of April.

Colin, A Stupid Game & learning how to spell MacLea... McLear..... McCleary

I have mellowed towards Colin over recent years, since his Sheffield United departure I have started to find his rants rather entertaining & it has to be said that he has offered some quite complimentary remarks towards our club & fans recently. This probably says more about my feelings towards the Blunts than it does to Mr Warnock.

The game got off to a rather predictable start with McCormack hurling himself to the ground when he saw Guedioura daring to stand in the penalty area & Mr Ilderton blew his whistle to award what is technically referred to as 'One of those decisions you get with a big & aggressive home crowd' as if that is some kind of justification & Forest were facing an uphill battle, or so it seemed. In truth there were so many false dawns in this game I was struggling to see who had the upper hand. Even at 6 - 3 up it was such a stupid game you wouldn't have discarded anything.

Anyway, I digress. There we were, A Goal down, a seemingly weak referee & a play off chasing Leeds side with both momentum & Colin backing them up. You could have forgiven the Forest support if they'd got up & walked straight out. I mean, it was only going to get worse, wasn't it? but like school children at the nativity play, this Forest side got lost & went off script in the funniest way imaginable, or at least Guedioura did, clearly taking offence at having had a penalty awarded against him, he took it upon himself to launch a thunderbolt from a different post code area that screamed into the top corner, not that Lonergan in the Leeds goal saw it of course.

This is the point where you start weighing up what you'd settle for. We'd fallen at the first hurdle, witnessed a miracle to get back into the game & as it then settles down you think to yourself 'Tough place to come is Elland Road, I'd take the point now' but McCleary had other ideas & pinballed a 2nd goal. And that's half time, you're 2 - 1 up & you know you shouldn't get too carried away, that a draw would still be a good result here & the nerves remain as the 2nd half kicks off when..... Oh, we've scored again.

There are 38 minutes to go & we're 3 - 1 up, oh my God we're actually going to....... Oh, there are 35 minutes to go & it's 3 - 3, we're going to bloody lose thi..... Oh, there are 34 minutes to go & we're winning again.

At this point, Any right minded Forest fans simply closed their eyes, said to hell with it & quietly wept for 15 minutes until the Garath McCleary show ended & all those people that struggled to spell his name in January suddenly remembered they'd always known he had the talent & we all started to hear 'that sound', all of a sudden Forest were 6 - 3 up, the crowd were deliriously singing "we want 7" & when Dexter popped up to oblige people started suffering from embolisms & the World simply ceased to exist. Well, it may as well have done, we'd entered a fantasy land when Sky Sports News can no longer use numbers [like 7] & instead have to separate the winning margins of opposing sports teams with words [like SEVEN]

Onwards & Upwards.

So, we are set to return to the City Ground on Saturday to face Brighton in a game that looks a little daunting as the Seagulls sit in forth place on 61 points. As a better sign for optimism though they are the lowest goal scorers in the league away from home outside of the bottom 3. They managed just 15 goals away from the AmEx Stadium. Forest recently scored half that amount away from home in just one game, don't know if anyone has mentioned that?

Forest aren't exactly in storming form, but we are in 'limping over the line' form at the moment. Three wins from 9 games would almost certainly keep us up, lets get started on Saturday.

And Now, The End Is Near...... So I Shall Begin

As a starting point for a blog, this is a fairy miserable time. We have just conceded the double to our bitterest rivals, our owner has sadly passed away & although we're not exactly a rudderless ship, we are a ship being steered by a former player & manager in Frank Clark who may have played for us in our most successful period & was the most successful manager in the post Clough era but unfortunately has little experience in this arena barring a stint running Leyton Orient 20 odd years ago. That though will have little relevance to running Nottingham Forest which is now an ex big big club with the potential to be successful if it wasn't for being a decrepit creaking old has been losing a seven figure sum every month. God bless you Frank, but I think you're gonna need a bigger boat.....

Mr Clark is of course ably assisted by current ex-manger-in-waiting Steve Cotterill, who it would seem is as mad as a barrel of monkeys on LSD. In footballs who's who Mr Cotterill lists medallions, swearing & pretending the opposition didn't score under his 'favorites'

There is of course the old face of a certain Mr Arthur lurking about behind the scenes too, we have neither seen nor heard from Mr Arthur since the sad loss of Mr Doughty, but we know he's still there somewhere pretending to be the CEO in the same way I as a child pretended to be BA Baracus. I really do pity the fool, wandering the darkened corridors of power like some demented cross between The Phantom Of The Opera & Quasimodo.

Then we move to the most likable of the lot, Terry the kit man. The kind of bloke that would have been a PE teacher if he hadn't been so fat & unhealthy, but he does seem a loyal servant to the club. He looks lost most of the time, but that's mainly because he has no idea where he is.

And that's Nottingham Forest, a motley crew of do gooders, misfits & the socially inept or unstable running this once great football club. It would be devastating if it wasn't so easy to make a joke out of it all. We are currently lurching through an uncertain universe with no more control over the eventual outcome than a dung beetle has control of a Jaguars anus. We just watch & wait patiently, hoping for the best

So, that brings me, begrudgingly, to the football. We sit 5 points above the relegation zone before this weekends round of games & with 10 games to save ourselves. In theory you would say it's all in our own hands but of course we know that's not true, our season is in the hands of a footballing lunatic, we have an enviable list of players that could win games regardless of their game instructions if only it was 2002 & they were still good. The saving grace for this season is Portsmouth losing ten points through being run by a group of crooks/incompetents'/schizophrenics [delete as appropriate] that make our lot look like a dream team. All this means we'll probably only need 10 or 12 more points to survive. Luckily, we head hunted Portsmouth's chief lunatic, what could possibly go wrong?

It's more than achievable, we have the experience to hold their nerve & the skill to score goals. Lets all hope they can hold it together & while we're on the subject of nerve, lets try to help them as much as we can, it's kind of what we're for.

The Playing Cast - In Order Of Appearances

  

Lee Camp - A very angry young man

Chris Gunter - the nicest man to ever steal your wallet

Luke Chambers - Accident prone elder son, always blames a younger brother & always gets away with it

Guy Moussi - Was brought up by & taught football by a troupe of travelling clowns, still wears the big boots

Jonathan Greening - He's not the Messiah

Lewis McGugan - Star of the show, twice a year

Marcus Tudgay - Mr dependable, by which we mean he turns us, no more & no less

Joel Lynch - The Younger brother

Andy Reid - A talented yet troubled artist

Garath McCleary - Match winner, occasionally uses said match to burn down the Forest

Radi Majewski - The Invisible Man

Ishmael Miller - Family Scrounger, been on the sick since he left school

Chris Cohen - He's not a real boy, he's the prototype for the I Robot. In for repairs to his hard drive

Matt Derbyshire - 8's Derby, but that's all so far

Dexter Blackstock - The caring Dad who just wants everyone to be happy

Marlon Harewood - The Prodigal Son, well, when he finally arrives

Left Back Of The Week - Guest Staring: Hill, Cunningham, Elokobi