Forest tonight were forced to face up to life without Ian Wright, following his shock move to Celtic. Could Marlon Harewood fill his boots? Following his performance in the first 45 minutes of this game, maybe, just maybe.
This game was a typical mid table clash, lots of huffing and puffing without any real quality and just the occassional bit of excitement to give the crowd of 15,572 something to cher about.
For the second successive Home game , Forest fell behind. A terriffic cross by Jenson was met on the half volley by Gudjohnsen and it flew past a startled Crossley, who had no chance. Typically, this was the only effort that Bolton managed to get on target during the entire first period, despite having a lot of the possession.
Falling behind at least seemed to wake up the Reds, who began to excert pressure of their own on the Bolton defence. On the half hour Forest were awarded a free kick when Harewood was flattened by Cox. From the free kick, Marlon got onto the end of a pass fromFreedman and unleashed a rocket launcher of a shot that crashed into the roof of the net giving the keeper no chance whatsoever. Marlon wasn't finished either. After 39 minutes he again collected a ball from Freedman. This time another ferocious first time effort cannoned back off the bar with such pace that Rogers was not able to direct the rebound into the net.
But from this point on, Forest never really looked like adding to the scoreline.
The second half had that feel to it that had everyone knowing that the game was heading for another draw. Chances were few and far between for both sides, Freedman having arguably the best chance after 55 minutes. From an Alan Rogers corner, his shot was directed straight to the keeper when he ought to have done better. One moment of brightness in an otherwise dull half was the return of Petracchi from injury, and he also went close, when after a mazy run he shot just over the bar.
A baffling moment for the crowd occured when Platt took off Rogers with 30 minutes to go and replaced him with Chettle. Surely with the game balanced at 1-1 Woan would have been a better attacking option? Don't tell me that we were settling for a draw. I'm still waiting to hear a satisfactory explanation.
This is now 8 points that the Reds have dropped at The City Ground - it's just not good enough!!!
