Fans Frustrated With CC

The frustration of the fans showed at the end of this game when chants of ‘Calderwood out’ rang around the ground, reminiscent of the last days of the Megson era. But this was a game that Forest dominated for large spells and for the most part were the better side. At the end of the day though, the stats will say it was a 1-1 draw and we failed to take our chances.

The game started at a lively pace. The Reds came right out of the blocks, like you always hope they would but usually don’t. We had two attempts on goal within the first five minutes, both from the young and emerging Thornhill, but he was denied on both occasions by the very impressive Ince in the Saddlers goal.

Next up it was the turn of Ormerod to go close with a header. His first game in front of the CG faithful saw him put in a solid display and workman like performance that suggests that when he’s 100% fit, he might get a few goals (his stats though, say otherwise, but we’ll wait and see). Nathan Tyson, who was alternating between centre forward and the wing forced Ince to look lively when he hit a swirling shot on the turn, that forced him into another decent save. Tyson went close again after Cohen sent him on his way with a nicely timed through ball. Tyson beat the defence with his pace and let rip with a bullet of a shot that rattled the cross bar.

It was all looking good for the Reds and at the interval the only thing missing from the home fans point of view was a goal. Forest had outplayed the visitors and were by far the better side, limiting Walsall to one half chance in the first 45. Both teams came out for the second half unchanged and with the same attitude. Walsall to frustrate with as many men behind the ball as they could muster and Forest with some tippy tappy stuff that was going no where.

The deserved breakthrough came within 4 mins of the restart. McGugan this time sent Tyson flying off down the wing and once again the striker/winger beat his chasers for pace. He sent a low ball into the box that was met by the on rushing Ormerod to dig home at the far post for his first goal in a Red shirt. Only minutes later it seemed like an action replay, when Tyson sent in a replica cross, but this time Ormerod did the seemingly impossible and missed the target. To be frank, it was a sitter.

Forest then conspired to do what Forest do best and that was to cock things up in glorious style. From dominating the game and seemingly cruising we pressed the self destruct button. The equaliser was calamitous from where I was at the other end of the ground. But from where I was Smith seemed to come for a ball that should have been his and missed. The cross from Edrissa Sonko was met by Mooney’s head and richocheted off Wilson and into the net. Bloody typical. Not what we wanted, but after 36 games it was all so predictable.

Fair play to Calderwood I suppose for having four strikers on by the end in an effort to get the winner, but it was never going to happen if we stayed on the pitch until Sunday. It’s a frustrating result that was compounded by the fact that the chance to make up ground was lost, as results elsewhere went our way. The chants for the managers head were so audible he must have heard them, but he didn’t sound too upset by them in his post match interview. I think he’s here for a while yet and I think he’ll be taking us to the playoffs. We don’t do playoffs very well, do we?