Monday 21 March 2016

Slugfest at the iPro

So the Brian Clough Trophy is back at the iPro Stadium after a scrappy shootout on Saturday. 

A first half saw our visitors with the better of the play, but they failed to test Scott Carson.  The second half saw us move up a gear and despite this being a dull dour affair we were the only team that looked like scoring the much needed goal. 

Not a great performance, but when it's the East Midlands Derby the games are hardly ever classics. 

Both sides looked very poor, yet under the right management both could do very well. 

There's no doubting that our lads can rise and we have seen that in the very recent past. Forest lacked anything in he final third of the field, but defensively didn't look bad at all. 

Anyway on the day itself, all that counts is the final score and that saw our fans go away the happy ones. 

Big shout outs first of all for Darren Wassall/Harry Redknapp whoever decided to start Jamie Hanson over Cyrus Christie. Many, myself included thought that it was going to prove to be a costly tactical error, but Hanson had a very good game. He kept Osborn very quiet. 

George Thorne and Markus Olsson also had a good game and Tom Ince put in a shift. 

I suppose what we all want to know is how much influence Harry Redknapp is having on the team? If it's very little, what exactly is he doing?

Hopefully we can anchor ourselves in the top six and I suppose play offs is better than no chance of promotion at all. Obviously we won't be fancied by a lot of people to make progress in them, but it'll give us a good chance to shut up those who call us chokers. Some of those support teams who have either choked every time or indeed having had enough going to even cough. 

Tuesday 15 March 2016

Not a lotta Bottle

The past eight days have seen us win at home to Huddersfield. A scrappy performance but three valuable points nevertheless, a gutless loss away at QPR, and finally a draw that should have been a good win at Rotherham. 

We had shown some signs of playing well and coming back from the New York Stadium with all three points. The fact is we should have! No excuses whatsoever for such a calamitous collapse! None whatsoever! Any decent side who are three goals to the good in the closing minutes does not concede three goals. 

For me this season the club has gone backwards by three seasons. It's resembling Nigel Cloughs last few weeks as manager. 

As I have said before I think that the error was made in the summer. Mel Morris had two big decisions to make. First of all he had to deal with want away manager Steve McClaren. He took the right decision in sacking him in my opinion. 

The second big decision was appointing a replacement. Instead of going for an experienced head and Safeish pair of hands he gambled on a rookie to the number one role in Paul Clement. 

Clement was on a shortlist of one! He was headhunted! It was a big gamble to appoint him and it simply didn't work out! Forget the so called Derby way, bar a few matches the performances were simply dreadful. 

He is yet to make the decision who to replace Clement with but it surely won't be Academy Manager Darren Wassall. 

Wassall hasn't been a great caretaker and he is in serious danger of doing irreparable damage to the reputation he has built at the club with his success at the academy. 

Morris needs to act sooner rather than later! This team is desperately needed leadership and guidance! It needs an experienced boss!

We face the rivals from down the road on Saturday and despite their lack of success this season we will have a very tough job on Saturday.  

Their defence isn't breached easily and they can score 

Update

Forest have relieved Dougie Freedman of his managerial duties and former Ram Paul Williams takes over til the end of the season..

Derby appoint Harry Redknapp to a role advising Darren Wassall. We live in changing times!