Nottingham Forest entertain Bristol city this weekend & with very little to choose between the two teams it could live up the excitement of last seasons 3 – 2 home win (inspired by Adriano Basso & his cramped up legs) when Dexter Blackstock smashed in a 90th minute winner after City were reduced to 10 men.
Vital Quotes:
I’ve got be to realistic and if we can finish 10th, 11th or 12th that would be a good achievement
Nottingham Forest Team News:
Blackstock will probably miss out with a medial knee ligament strain but Rob Earnshaw may return after suffering a calf injury. Nathan Tyson has been ruled out until the end of the month after picking up a knock in training while James Perch is likely to keep his place on the bench after retuning to the squad after his long running shin problem.
Player to watch: Rob Earnshaw
If does return he’ll certainly be fired up to make sure he keeps his place after he was dropped recently because of his poor form. With Blackstock likely to be missing again this is the perfect opportunity for him to show his worth.
Bristol City Team News:
Bristol City influential skipper Louis Carey is likely to miss the match with a back problem that saw him taken off at half time in their last game, Liam Fontaine may still absent with an ankle injury and Bradley Orr has missed the last few games with an achilles problem.
Player to watch: Nicky Maynard
Maynard is city’s top scorer so far this season with 9 league goals & an assist to his name in 14 games and is certainly their main threat.
City goal keeper Dean Gerken can often be caught out showing off his ball skills.
Match Facts & Stats
Forest & Bristol City have met in league competition 60 times with Forest having the much better record having won 26 of those ties, City have won 13 & there have been 21 draws. Forest have also comfortably outscored their opponents by 96 goals to 64.
Bristol City haven’t tasted victory over Forest since December 1974, a run consisting of 16 games & 10 Forest wins, they also haven’t won at the City Ground since December 1955.
Ref Watch:
Anthony Taylor of Cheshire will be this weekends referee. He last took charge of a Forest fixture on New Years day 2008 when forest ran out 2 – 1 winners over Huddersfield. No thanks to Mr Taylor though who wrongfully sent off Kelvin Wilson.
He last took charge of a City game in April of this year & they also have nothing to thank him for when he awarded Ipswich a contentious
penalty in the 4th minute of injury time to draw the game.
Sasa Ihringova (Shropshire) and Amy Rayner (Leicestershire) will be his assistants & the fourth official will be Nottinghams very own James Adcock.
Match Prediction:
Forest do well in this fixture & i expect that to continue on the back of Forests recent good run. City have a very good goal scorer in Maynard though so i also expect us to concede. Forest 2 – 1 Bristol City
Next Fixtures:
Saturday, 21 November 15:00
The Football League Championship
Middlesbrough v Nottm Forest
