I like Jokanavic's analysis of the game. Our prior managers would've praised the hard work and bemoaned the bad luck, but he refuses to be satisfied that we lost our composure in the last 30 minutes. That's a very good early sign in my eyes.
Thing is, that's exactly but the sort of game which Zola couldn't manage. Forest are a well drilled, solid and strong side who chased down everything, but we opened them up a couple of times by patiently holding posession and probing, with movement from the front 3 and midfield. But for the stupid goals we conceded it would have marked a real milestone in our maturity as a side.
What's more gutting is looking at that league table this morning, I know nothing is won in October but the win we should have taken last night would have put us 4 points clear of boro in 3rd. We done enough in the first half to win the game, and the only way forest were gonna score was via a mistake by us, cue a mistake by us!!! As I said last night although not quite as politely, the officials were abysmal. As soon as the foul on Vydra happened the ref was in the pocket and out with the yellow, not even a thought of a red or a chat with his assistant who could surely see that Mancienne was the last man!! Finally, i've been one of the Ighalo slaters of late and even said to a mate who came along with me last night that he was 'pony' but he absolutely run his balls off last night, deservedly got his goal and I thought was a tad unlucky to be brought off with still 30 mins left. Keep proving the doubters wrong Odion!!
Regardless of Premier League or Championship next season - signing Munari permanently wouldn't be frowned at if it was top of the 'to do' list
While I don't think Ighalo is that good, he went a long way last night to prove me wrong. Worked hard and had good knack to get into good spaces, which gave him the goal.
Steve Wigley - the Forest assistant admitted it was a "heart in mouth" moment regarding the Vydra going down when through on goal incident.. The ball might have gone out for the 2nd but we still let Burke have a good run and put the ball in too easily I feel. Shame as generally we played well and had a number of chances to be well ahead 1st half. Maybe run out of steam after an hour or so - maybe not helped wuith Abdi having to go off and Ighalo being replaced. FF worked his socks off I thought and Munari really has impressed. Not a bad point but disappointing to through the lead twice.
Two poor goals to concede. Mancienne should have been off. Couldn't see if the ball had gone for a throw but regardless of that, we should never have let him get as far as he did and we should never have let him get a cross in. Play to the whistle. Pudil was average. JCP was really poor. Abdi going off was a big knock to the system. Fessi/Vydra/Igloo were superb. Deeney looking unmotivated?!?! Laughable. Igloo - I've never seen such a turnaround in a player. A few weeks back he looked hopelessly out of his depth and it was cruel watching him look as poor as he did...but fair play, last couple of games he has put in decent performances and bagged a couple of goals.
Agree with most of your other points, but have to pick you up on this. What did JCP do wrong exactly? I thought he was solid at worst.
Agreed Moog - I thought JCP was good. Also, did anyone notice after the first Forest goal the announcer said "Number 4 - Michael Antonio", rather than number 18?
126 LAW 12 – FOULS AND MISCONDUCT Denying a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity There are two sending-off offences that deal with denying an opponent an obvious opportunity to score a goal. It is not necessary for the offence to occur inside the penalty area. If the referee applies advantage during an obvious goalscoring opportunity and a goal is scored directly, despite the opponent’s handling the ball or fouling an opponent, the player cannot be sent off but he may still be cautioned. Referees should consider the following circumstances when deciding whether to send off a player for denying a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity: • the distance between the offence and the goal • the likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball • the direction of the play • the location and number of defenders • the offence which denies an opponent an obvious goalscoring opportunity may be an offence that incurs a direct free kick or an indirect free kick
JCP had a frustrating game last night, all of hs first touches were brilliant but his crosses were poor and wasn't able to beat their left back that often.
Forest were battered stupid for 70 minutes last night, it's as one sided a game as I've seen for years. When Deeney came on the formation fell apart and long balls replaced the slick crisp passing and movement we'd seen all evening. As soon as we played long ball Forest were back on equal terms. Once the new man has worked out how to play Deeney and Vydra together without the long ball we'll be smashing teams all over the park. Mark my words, we ARE going up.
This may sound a bit odd - but even if we'd lost that game in the last minute last night I wouldn't have felt too bad. The wins we've been squeezing out early this season masked a team that looked fragile and capable of going on a bad run at any point - that team performance last night was one of a team who will batter most of the opposition in the league. Forest are one of the best teams in this division and the gulf in quality was so evident. Antonio's individual quality got them the first goal, yes there was a mistake but he had a lot to do to go past Ekstrand and slide it beneath Gomes. Not many players we come up against will take chances like those. We have to sort out the sloppiness but Jokanovic clearly won't rest until we have.
I agree. A great first hour, but then we fell apart. Difficult to know which of the three possible reasons was decisive: - Abdi going off, to be replaced by the ineffective Murray - Our old fault of stopping doing what we had been doing well (attacking in numbers with short, quick passes) after we'd gone ahead again - Replacing Igloo, who was mostly quiet but showed some great touches when it mattered, with Troy who clearly isn't fit. But a great evening's entertainment. BTW, I was in line with the first possible red card, and I and the people around me thought that while red wouldn't have been wrong, yellow was the right judgement call.
The point was much better point for them than it was for us. With all the media circle jerking around big club Forest it's quite something that we're coming out of that gutted for not getting the 3 points and knowing we were the better team for the majority of the match. Glad at how quiet we kept Britt. As already said, Antonio is a beast of a player, without him they wouldn't be up there. A long way to go yet, the top of the league chants probably need to stop...
Not sure we fell apart we just weren't as good as the previous hour. Fell apart is what we did at Forest last season
Was anyone concerned with the amount of width Forest had in midfield? I just noticed they seemed to have more of it than we did.
I think Lloyd has better concentration than JCP but Antonio and Paredes were just about matched for pace JCP still struggled at times. Lloyd would have had a very tough time of it. Also, as Slavisa said in his post-match, Forest crowded the middle so we had to push our full-backs forward to create space. JCP is a much better option in that respect.
Remember that wonderful bit of control from JCP in the second half. Had that been Doyley we would have still been looking for it in the hospital grounds. I prefer JCP as he offers far more going forward and if you don't score goals you don't win games. What would Lloyd have done differently?
It was a very nice touch and obviously Paredes is better going forward. However both of their goals came from our right side (the cross for their second was from the left but Paredes was marking Antonio) and I personally believe that Doyley would've dealt with them better
Think that JCP had to be on to counter the pace of Antonio when he decided to maraud down the left flank instead of the right, with Doyley there I fear he'd have been left for dead more than Parades was. Antonio aside, Forest were especially mediocre and were clearly set out for a point before the game even started. Considering their record of late and a severe lack of wins, this seemed to show a surprising lack of ambition. I felt that, as many before me have already said, we were absolute quality for around an hour before tired legs and substitutions took the edge off. Vydra, Munari, Tozser and Ighalo all strong and was impressed with Bassong, seems a strong, no-nonsense centre back and hope he's not too badly injured, if at all. The referee had a poor game overall, however the 'last man' decision would have been a slightly difficult one given the number of players between him and the ball. I'd really prefer to see Gomes stop ****ing around with the ball in his box, sooner or later he's going to come a cropper.
Paredes had nothing to do with the first goal, Abdi lost the ball, Ekstrand slipped If Doyley had played, Antonio would have had much more joy getting in behind, and also wouldn't have had to track back as much to cover an attacking full back.
Does anyone else absolutely hate Watford? I mean, obviously we're all Forest fans and are therefore geographically obligated to hate Derby, but if ever there was a team that deserved hating, it's these guys. I was sat in the home section last night and, whilst there was an element of truth to it, listening to their arrogant fans talk about how bad we were (the 'worst they'd seen at Vicarage Rd this season' btw, in some cases) was really starting to **** me off. I counted precisely zero British players in their starting XI. The only reason this team is any good is because they're owned by the same family who own Udinese and Granada. If every club in the country was run the same way, our national team would be about as good as Gibraltar's. Watford fans do have the most arrogant fans I've met, post match having met up for a beer they really believe it was men against boys A team B team stuff. To me they are worse than Derby, by a long way, the set up and connections has been documented before when Zola first managed them and they nearly got promoted, however all the publicity has faded away. The theatrical exploits) and willing to dive like U BOATS by the Watford players was very annoying to say the least (my nickname for Watford is the 'Yellow Submarines'), however my frustration was the Referee and his officials for not stamping this out!, not withstanding what appeared to be a head injuryto one of our players as play continued to Watford advantage. We had a free kick at the end just outside the area and the referee blew his whistle!!!. Cant help but laugh at these B E L L E N D S
Default Good and balanced comments from the manager. I can't understand why we get such an appalling ref for a game between early promotion rivals ( yes I know it's still early) and Norwich vs Leeds had a prem ref. I don't know whether the second offence on Vydra was a red card but the one on one incident was. Also totally ignored Darlos time wasting and allowed him to re-gell his hair on numerous occasions, instead of getting the ball or taking a goal kick. Oh well.
I think you have to hold your hands up and say that it was a fantastic cross. I would say that Lloyd may well have made a better effort at stopping the cross though. The first goal was a dreadful pass from Abdi and Antonio made the most of it but he ghosted past Ekstrand like he wasn't there
But the pass from Abdi was abysmal, Ekstrand was always going to be on the back foot after that. However Abdi's poor pass looked like a result of him slipping as hewent for it and caused his injury; was the surface too wet?
