Forest sit bottom of the Championship this morning, after yet another humiliating defeat infront of the watching millions. A disgraceful second half performance from the team, coupled with some mind boggling tactical decisions from the gaffer, meant that a ten man City team swept aside the Forest ladies with ease.
It was a great first 45 mins from both sides, with chances galore, a sending off and a couple of goals taboot. Just about everything that a watching TV audience and nearly 20,000 freezing fans could want. Both teams were going for it and Forest got the early rub of the green when Gary Doherty was given his marching orders on 20 mins for a professional foul on Tyson, bringing him down on the edge of the box. The resulting free kick was quickly cleared by City and before you knew it they were up the other end of the pitch with the ball in the back of the Forest net. That was a shock to say the least, but with 70 mins to go and against 10 men you had to fancy our chances.
Forest were struggling to make the extra man count, with City battling hard. A decent spell for the Reds’, saw us pull a goal back and it was a well worked goal as well. Forest broke quickly and some neat passing saw Anderson curl the ball passed Marshall from the edge of the box, to make it one a piece.
The mood at the interval was upbeat, with supporters feeling confident that a win was a formality. But then again, you can’t account for Calderwood and his annoying bloody tinkering with the team. An injury to Thornhill saw the introduction of McCleary, which on paper was not a bad move. What I found disturbing, was when Cohen went to left back and Garner seemed to be moved into midfield. Forest had no shape and players who had been having a decent game in the first half were having a mare in the second. We let the Canaries take control of the game and fair play to them, because you would have struggled to see what team had ten men.
Some of the Forest defending was scary and we were duly punished on 73 mins with another quick City break. The defence went on walkabout and failed to get back in numbers, when Lita was left alone in the box. His simple pass to Croft, caused panic between Chambers and Cohen, with one of them knocking the ball into their own net. It was a farcical goal from a Forest perspective, but a deserved one from a City point of view.
The travelling support were rightly pleased with their team, who made light work of a lacklustre Forest. The effort and good work from the first half, was now replaced by the worst that our lads can offer. No passion or desire and a definite lack of ideas means that the fans are always going to go home disappointed and in that respect they didn’t let us down.
With the game drawing to a close, the stands began to empty. The sensible ones were leaving early, but I had a forlorn hope that we might nick one back and at least salvage a point. In the end of course we failed to even do that and you have to say, it would have been an injustice if we did. Norwich were worthy of the points and we got what we deserved, which was absolutely nothing. A guy in front of me, yelled that we were ‘just a bunch of pansies!’ He wasn’t wrong.
Where do we go from here? Well, we could do worse than to take a leaf out of Charlton’s book. They at least look like they want to get out of the relegation zone, whereas Forest seem content to stick with what we have. It’s all a little predictable now and we’ve all been here before.
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