On a beautifully warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, it was a joy to watch my beloved Nottingham Forest as they entertained us with a brand of inventive and attacking football that few of us, if any, would have guessed they were capable of. This performance would surely have the rest of the sides in the Division anxiously looking at the fixture lists and dreading the day when the Reds come calling. There were so many plus points in this game that it is difficult to know where to start. Everything that was good was on display.
There was the defensive strength of Bonalair, the vision of Bart-Williams, the awareness of Chettle, the communication skills of Crossley and the awesome physical presence of Freedman. The crowd too played it's part - a capacity 30,000 crowd warmly applauding move after sweeping move and urging their heroes on as they took the opposition apart.
Then some miserable bastard spoiled it for me. He woke me up with a sharp clip around the back of my head, accompanied by a ' Wake up you git. if I've got to watch this crap then so have you!'
From my wonderfully warm and comfortable place I was immediately transported back to the present and was forced to face the harsh reality of today's City Ground.
The Reds were again under the cosh, playing the same predictable brand of football that would lead to the same inevitable result - another game without a win.
To say that Forest were second best today would be a massive understatement. The truth is they looked as though they didn't even belong in the same Division as Huddersfield, as time and again the visitors took them apart. I hate to be negative, but I really can't find anything good to say about today's game from the Forest point of view, so the match details will have to suffice. Huddersfield won, we lost. They were good, we weren't.
We were treated to a wonderful opening goal though, when Marcus Stewart went past Bonalair as though he wasn't there ( 4 minutes later and he wasn't ) and laid the ball back to Wijnhard, who not for the first time and certainly not the last, had completely lost Steve Chettle. His curling shot into the top corner gave Crossley no chance and The Terriers were ahead after 24 minutes.
Huddersfield's second goal arrived 12 minutes later. A free kick was taken by Vincent and Gray, completely unmarked ( and how many times have we seen that this season already ) strolled into the 6 yard box to meet the ball and put his header into the back of the net. It could and should have been Huddersfield's third goal, as just seconds before only a great save from Crossley had denied the ever dangerous Wijnhard.
At 0-2 it was difficult to see Forest salvaging anything from this game, but we were given just a ray of hope as the half drew towards its conclusion. A short ball from Chettle found Andy Johnson who fired a tremendous 50 yard ball into the path of Rogers. Good control, a step on the gas and he was away from the defenders and bearing down on goal. Tank's shot was well hit and squirmed under the keeper before rolling agonizingly slowly toward the net. I think it only made it thanks to the suction power of the Bridgeford End, but it was 1-2 and the Reds, undeservedly, were back in with a shout. It has been said on many occasions that we play only one good half during a match, and this first 45 minutes certainly wasn't it, so maybe, just maybe, we would step up several gears and really stick it to 'em in the second half.
Well, we started brightly enough and had a good chance to level after 52 minutes. Brennan produced a good run down the left and put in a decent cross that found the on loan Beck but his first touch let him down and Vaesen made the save. This effort seemed to reawaken Huddersfield who then set about finishing the game off.
Their third goal arrived on 64 minutes, courtesy of Laurel and Hardy a.k.a. Chettle and Crossley. A harmless ball was punted upfield looking for Wijnhard. Either Forest player could have cleared it with ease but both seemed to leave it for the other before they both decided to play it. Chettle got there first and for some insane reason decided to play it across his goalmouth rather than the usual hoof out of play. As it happened, Mr Wijnhard was there, and the ball went straight to him. He had time to stroll towards the empty net before calmly tapping it in ( Dougie please watch the video and see how easy it is ) to wrap up the points.
We are now really in the mire, Platts crutch that 'We're still unbeaten at home' having been firmly snatched away, and nothing less than 3 points against Tranmere in the next game will do. I said at the start of these ramblings that there were no positive points that I could think of, but clutching at straws I suppose one could say that Brennan looks as though he could go on to be a useful addition the team, Prutton again looked steady and although it goes against my nature to say nice things about anything remotely connected to D***y, Beck didn't look too bad, even taking into account that poncey hair style. He probably did enough to warrant the Stanno's Star award for this game, but he ain't getting it.
Oh well, back to sleep to see if we're still beating the Arsenal.
