Crystal Palace 1:2 Forest (not nil any more, oh no)
As I tried to explain to the Palace fan in the pub before the game, for some bizarre reason Selhurst Park is one of my favourite away grounds and the possibility of spending a half-term week holiday on a coach to South London with one of my boys was too tempting.
The trip's awful, 4 1/2 hours in stop start traffic with only Phoenix Nights for comfort, before sitting in a ground where both goalkeepers probably have a post in front of them.
I've spent many a happy pre-match in the Alliance just up from the station, and it was there I headed again. Unfortunately, their children's license had run out at 6pm, so we had to go to the Weatherspoon's over the road for a nice pint of Orkney's "Dark Island". Every silver lining etc .....
Why all the pre-amble, well, I wasn't expecting anything from the evening except maybe a numb backside, a good hammering and a late night. All for nearly £70. Just like a normal night out then, eh ?
But half an hour into the game something strange happened. We'd been on top for the first 20 minutes, as usual, not scored, as usual, and the Forest fans were expending their energy on the oppostion manager, as usual, so nothing new there, but there seemed to be a strange bulge in the back of the Crystal Palace goal. No-one seemed sure who'd put it there, so it was decided the best course of action was to jump around like loons celebrating a full solar eclipse.
The first half ended, and to be fair, we deserved to be a goal up. Not in a Colin Calderwoodout sense, where we deserve to be a goal up but actually we're losing, really properly really deserved to be in front.
It wouldn't last, and we all knew it. Wes & Breckin at the back were doing a sterling job, but the ball just wasn't sticking up front. Mind you, having two of Snow Whites house-mates up front didn't help. When Rob Earnshaw is the man you're launching high balls to, you know you're in trouble.
So off comes Earnshaw to be replaced by Tyson, who drops into midfield. 4-4-2 becomes 4-5-1.
The siege gets worse, the ball is never out of our half, so a tactical masterstroke is called for. Obviously 4-5-1 isn't defensive enough, so off comes Garner for Thornhill and for a couple of minutes we are actually playing a mind-boggling 4-6-0 formation. In the distance I can just see what looks like Colin Calderwoodout nursing a semi. I could be wrong .....
And then the predictable happens. A long ball to Kuqi, a man so big light bends round him, it hits his more than ample chest, bounces down before he hits an unstoppable shot into the corner for the equaliser. OK, some of that isn't true, he hit a pea-roller into the middle of the net, but an unsighted Camp still let it in.
The bit about Kuqi being fat is all true.
But we didn't yet know what the maserstroke was, for it was Matt Thornhill himself, on the end of a twice missed effort from Perch from 6 yards and a twice failed clearance who played the ball pinball like into the net off a Palace defender. Not only the winner, but surely we get royalties from goals like that now.
The snow on the way home and having to scrape my car at two in the morning were a small price to pay to be able say that I've seen EVERY SINGLE Forest win this season. And there's not many who can say that.
The trip's awful, 4 1/2 hours in stop start traffic with only Phoenix Nights for comfort, before sitting in a ground where both goalkeepers probably have a post in front of them.
I've spent many a happy pre-match in the Alliance just up from the station, and it was there I headed again. Unfortunately, their children's license had run out at 6pm, so we had to go to the Weatherspoon's over the road for a nice pint of Orkney's "Dark Island". Every silver lining etc .....Why all the pre-amble, well, I wasn't expecting anything from the evening except maybe a numb backside, a good hammering and a late night. All for nearly £70. Just like a normal night out then, eh ?
But half an hour into the game something strange happened. We'd been on top for the first 20 minutes, as usual, not scored, as usual, and the Forest fans were expending their energy on the oppostion manager, as usual, so nothing new there, but there seemed to be a strange bulge in the back of the Crystal Palace goal. No-one seemed sure who'd put it there, so it was decided the best course of action was to jump around like loons celebrating a full solar eclipse.
The first half ended, and to be fair, we deserved to be a goal up. Not in a Colin Calderwoodout sense, where we deserve to be a goal up but actually we're losing, really properly really deserved to be in front.
It wouldn't last, and we all knew it. Wes & Breckin at the back were doing a sterling job, but the ball just wasn't sticking up front. Mind you, having two of Snow Whites house-mates up front didn't help. When Rob Earnshaw is the man you're launching high balls to, you know you're in trouble.
So off comes Earnshaw to be replaced by Tyson, who drops into midfield. 4-4-2 becomes 4-5-1.
The siege gets worse, the ball is never out of our half, so a tactical masterstroke is called for. Obviously 4-5-1 isn't defensive enough, so off comes Garner for Thornhill and for a couple of minutes we are actually playing a mind-boggling 4-6-0 formation. In the distance I can just see what looks like Colin Calderwoodout nursing a semi. I could be wrong .....
And then the predictable happens. A long ball to Kuqi, a man so big light bends round him, it hits his more than ample chest, bounces down before he hits an unstoppable shot into the corner for the equaliser. OK, some of that isn't true, he hit a pea-roller into the middle of the net, but an unsighted Camp still let it in.
The bit about Kuqi being fat is all true.
But we didn't yet know what the maserstroke was, for it was Matt Thornhill himself, on the end of a twice missed effort from Perch from 6 yards and a twice failed clearance who played the ball pinball like into the net off a Palace defender. Not only the winner, but surely we get royalties from goals like that now.
The snow on the way home and having to scrape my car at two in the morning were a small price to pay to be able say that I've seen EVERY SINGLE Forest win this season. And there's not many who can say that.
posted by Lucky Col at
4:00 PM
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