Forest 1:1 Bristol City

It had to happen sooner or later. Forest have been quietly going about their business, closely winning here, sneaking a victory there and suddenly we’re banging on the doors of the play-offs. Someone was bound to notice at some point.

And that team were Bristol City. A bloke in the toilets at half time commented that it was like being back in the first division, teams of cloggers kicking lumps out of our more gifted players (14 seconds for their first yellow card) while sticking eleven men behind the ball and trying to catch us on the break.

Couple that with Forest having their worst passing performance of the season and the game had nil nil written all over it. Everyone was at it. Paul McKenna, arguably player of the season so far miss-hit pass after pass, Joe Garner was invisible, Majic pushed out wide, Anderson out of position, even Lee Camp returned the ball several times too many. A bad day all round.

And then Wes Morgan popped up with 5 minutes to go to shovel one in from 6 yards. He then sprinted faster than I’ve certainly ever seen him run to celebrate in front of the Main Stand.

I turned to my boy at this point, playing the dutiful father, trying not to get his hopes up, that being a Forest fan means years of struggle, heartbreak and angst. I simply told him “We’re not going to win this, you know that ?”. And like a prophet of doom, I was proved right. Kelvin Wilson, who’d had a decent game to be fair, let the ball bounce in the area and City got a probably deserved equaliser.

So deserved, in fact, that during what should have been a frantic last couple of minutes of injury time, Forest fans were more than happy that they’d got even a point from such a poor performance that anything else, especially after blatantly ripping off Bristol City last season, would have been a step too far.

Still, we’re unbeaten now since mid September, almost two months ago, and that’s a good place to go into this international break. A few returning from injury, a chance to have a bit of a knees & feet up session and back to it with plummeting Middlesbrough up next.

It’s good being a Forest fan again, and maybe we can have this season off after all. Mid table in March, no hassle, no drama, just good times.

Or is that asking too much ?