I really hate Crewe sometimes, today wasn’t one of those times but it was close. The Alex couple have put the icing on the survival chase today but school boy errors, and nothing else, saw us completely lost in Nottingham. I think you can tell we went with the same old team that have taken us through this rough patch….
Williams
B.Jones - McCready - Foster - Vaughan
Lunt - Sorvel - Cochrane - Hignett
S.Jones - Ashton
Defend? Defend what?
So it was 1-0... Well after eight minutes. Just pathetic defending, to say the least. We were under consistent pressure and didn’t look like we could handle anything Forest threw at us. Morgan down the left was giving Billy a hard time and Marlon King did a fine job of unsettling our centre backs, McCready and Foster, Gareth Taylor, his strike partner, less so.
The goal came soon after Gareth Williams’ 30 yard shot whistled past the right post and skimmed the side netting, and I only know all the names because I’ve just won the league in my first season with them on Championship Manager.
Onto less pressing matters, King took it down the inside left and into the area. Foz faced up to him but King ran straight at him whilst Foster stood firm, the ball bounced off Foster and back to King who had scrambled past Foster for a clear sight on goal and he sent a lethal shot past the unfortunate Ben Williams.
So, pick ourselves up and try and search for an equaliser. We did, for a while. Neil Sorvel hit a hard but bouncing shot from 25 yards, ‘keeper Paul Gerrard thumbled it but due to slow thinking there were no Alex players to pick up the pieces for Sorvs. So it was down to Dean Ashton, but he couldn’t find a way through either. 13 is unlucky for some and the 13th minute was unlucky for Deano. A Kenny Lunt cross to the far post deluded everyone and was going behind Ashton but Deano, being the great he is, tried a crowd pleasing over head volly. The ‘keeper was then equal to that, quick reactions saw Gerrard changed direction to get a hand on the ball before gathering.
It turned up the noise in a already noisey City ground, even if their songs only really consisted of “We hate Derby”, “1-0 to Sunderland(Derby‘s opponents)”, “We are the Derby haters” and “We love you Johnno, we do”. You may remember me commenting on how Derby sung nothing but anti-Forest songs, sorry Derby… you’ve been beaten. Forest take the biscuit when it comes to an obsession with their rivals!
The play, meanwhile, was being, not dominated, ran by Forest. We had our fair few chances to attack but Forest were that little bit more thoughtful. It certainly helped them to know that we felt cocky enough to leave their main striker unmarked when they crossed it in from the right, from Andy Impey on the 18th minute, to go 6 yards out across the face of the goal to Marlon King who had the easiest header this century. Ben Williams dived in vain but it would have helped if he went up to catch the cross instead.
“It looks like West Ham again, Neil” Dario said to Baker… didn’t we all!
All of nothing
That was it, 10 minutes of shocking defending had thrown the game away. The plus point, I suppose, was that the players had learnt their lesson, sort of. Williams was coming for high balls and the defence denied the Forest strikers of any chance of getting behind them. Few chances went Forest’s way and from what I remember it was down to Gareth Taylor headers from the edge of the box.
Who needs chances? Nottingham Forest defended with confidence and their midfield over battled ours. Well, I say ‘ours’ but it was just Justin Cochrane and a small part of Sorvel. Cochrane battled on and on with tackle after tackle whilst Sorvs huffed and puffed and did quite well without impressing visiting supporters. The rest of the midfield, well… Kenny was given space by Forest but rarely exploited this and, erm… what’s his name? Mark Rivers… no… damn, forgot his name.
Oh wait, Craig Hignett. You forget these things while he’s so idle down the left that we might as well not be playing. He’s not what I’d call lazy but he shows an attitude that he doesn’t want to play for us, he obviously does but is does he have 100% commitment towards this club? Sorry, I don’t think he does.
In terms of chances for the rest of the first half then we were certainly having them. We were certainly wasting them as well. Billy tried ‘the Billy volley’ from a corner, it rifled into the penalty area pack of players and deflected to the opposite side of that Gerrard was jumping too but he managed to recover.
Jones then had a flick on from Ashton that saw him free on goal, his first time volley from 20 yards went straight at Gerrard… yawn.
With us away fans down at the opposite end of the pitch, to the end that we were attacking, it was hard to see what was going on so my co-ordinations may be completely wrong - sue me.
What I did witness was yet another Steve Jones miss. Boy, this guy can score but he can also make a few clangers - imagine he scored every half decent chance. Dean Ashton enticed Gerarrd out of his goal from the inside left, if I remember right, Deano’s shot was deflected into the path of Steve Jones, 10 yards out - open net… hits it wide.
Any other chances were insignificant.
More domination resulting in nothing
The second half we well and truly dominated. We played good stuff, it has to be said. We passed it with growing confidence and looked comfortable on the ball. We found space and spread the ball down the wings but when the ball got to the final quarter of the pitch, we really struggled.
The final ball was nowhere near good enough. We had all the play but failed to do anything whilst Forest could. Marlon King missed a free header from 5 yards, putting it wide 2 minutes after the re-start. Paul Evans then cut in down the by-line from the right and his shot looked like flashing up and over Williams but Williams’ quick reactions saw it parried over the bar.
Williams was called into action not much later, same player and same move. This time Williams closed Evans down to parried out a hard shot straight at him.
Forest enjoyed brief possession and the biggest cheer of the afternoon came when their hero David Johnson made a substitute appearance. The striker has just recovered from a broken leg and received a standing ovation.
Not to say he did that well. A few times he found himself free onloan, the first time he flashed it across goal and just wide of the far left post, second time he put it wide of the left post again and the third was when he had a open net to turn a shoot at but with his back to goal he didn’t notice.
I think that was it for the second half, I can’t remember any decent chances for us. We got in and around the box but the ball got trapped under Ashtons and Jonah’s feet too many times to mention. Ok, I’m just lazy.
So, Finally…
Well, I didn’t think we played that badly. We dominated large portions of the game with neat passing but our defence let slip too many times and its not a good sign. Michael Symes came on for the last 10 minutes, so he only got a few touches but looked good in the air and on the ground looked to have a decent touch. McCready also went off injured, again, and was replaced by the reliable Moses on the 53rd minute. Neither did that much wrong.
The next two games are absolutely vital. Rotherham and Watford, if we do lose them two games then it’ll take a miracle to get to Dario’s suggested 53 point safety mark. It’ll be even worse if Derby win one of their next two games. More concentration at the back and a better final ball and we should be ok - easier said than done.
Williams - 7 - Good, could have done better for the second goal, maybe, but otherwise denied Forest several times.
Billy - 7 - Alright. Best moment of the game came from Billy, pushing Forest’s £5million rated Andy Reid right to the FOREST byline through pressure.
Foster - 6 - At fault for the first goal, half at fault for the 2nd when he totally missed the ball when he went to clear it just before the cross.
McCready - 6 - Did well until he was taken off.
Vaughan - 6 - Quiet going forward and poor when defending, not one of Vaughany’s best days.
Sorvel - 7 - Ran from box to box for 90 minutes. Gave everything, got tackles in and spread around good balls.
Cochrane - 7 - Took the game by the scruff of the neck and showed he’s not lost any fight since his injury. Cut down anything Forest threw at him(Pun not really intended). Man Of The Match.
Hignett - 6 - Need I say more?
Lunt - 6 - Quiet. Found space a lot but never used it. Poor set pieces, again.
Jones - 6 - Quiet for a lot of the game, should have had a goal(or two) though.
Ashton - 6 - He could do nothing. Poor service to him and when he had it there was minimal help. How long will Dean carry on till he gets fed up on the lack of creativity?