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.
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.
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