| 29/04/2006 |  | Bournemouth |
(H)
|  | Drew | 1 - 1 |  |
| Reporter:
|
Simon Hough |
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| One word - disappointing.
Some questionable team selections didn't help. Pedersen ahead of Gerrard, Perch ahead of Clingan, Lester ahead of Grant Holt. Can't understand any of these. However, most of our players on the pitch failed to do themselves justice with many having their worst game in weeks. Pedersen looks nervy and has failed to convince me in almost every recent appearance. You've got to pick your best XI and this would have to be Gerrard every day of the week. Their distribution is equally as bad but Gerrard commands his area/defence and is the more dominant presence. Perch continues to disappoint and fail to justify his selection. Fair enough, it was his shot was turned home by Tyson, had an acrobatic effort well saved and another shot straight at the keeper. However, during the long spells of Bournemouth midfield possession he was no where to be seen. The more energetic, running style of Clingan would have been more use in this situation. I can possibly understand the Lester selection as there had been rumours of Holt getting injured in training before the game. There was no sign of this injury when Holt finally came on after 70 minutes though. Lester was very lucky not to have been sent off as he failed to have any impact on the game. Having already been booked, he committed another foul with a sliding challenge from behind for which he could easily have seen red. We can't afford this type of indiscipline at this stage of the season. Forest sorely missed the presence of Holt up front and we only started playing for the last 20 minutes when Lester was replaced. You only really appreciate the talents of players when they're no longer around. This is very true of Grant Holt. Just small decisions that, for me, indicate the need for a new manager being brought in over the summer to handle team selection and transfers. This would leave Charlie and Frank to deal with the team on a day to day basis and continue the good work they achieved so far. The players obviously enjoy working with them and it would be a shame to lose the improvements that have taken place over the past couple of months. Continuing the theme of disappointment brings me onto Kris Commons and his poor recent displays. For someone blessed with such talent he's failed to transform this into winning points for the team and should really have contributed much more over recent weeks. Attempting to score from a free kick wide on the left was crazy and he's started taking short corners instead of providing service for the height advantage we possess. The passing of the side was very poor and we failed to retain possession for long enough to put together enough attacks. The first half was very lacking in entertainment with Bournemouth happy to pass the ball around nicely in midfield without actually threatening. Forest struggled to get the ball and were quick to lose possession as soon as it arrived. Bournemouth looked good in possession but failed to create more than a couple of chances. Unfortunately one of them was Fletcher's flicked header, that left Pedersen with no chance, to put them 1-0 up at the start of the second half. The only other chance fell to Hayter late in the first half but his effort drifted off-target with the Forest defence missing. Things improved after the break and noticably when Grant Holt was introduced with 20 mins to go. He was about to replace Lester just before we scored but the goal put the change back 15 minutes. The closest we came to a winner came through a typical forward run by Bennett who picked out Perch. His overhead kick produced an amazing save by their keeper to prevent us going in front. Forest also had a goal disallowed when Grant Holt headed a right wing free kick towards goal. Another decent save from the keeper fell to Morgan who tapped home. Unfortunately, it was ruled out by the linesman due to offside. Very tricky to pick a MOTM this week but Nathan Tyson earns it for effort alone and to be honest there weren't too many other contenders. Bennett was okay and Morgan was pretty solid but his distribution from the back was woeful at times. If Tyson had been here for more than just a few months, he'd have walked the player of the season awards. Fortunately, the results went for us yet again and neither Barnsley or Swansea managed to win their home game. Even though it's out of our hands next Saturday, we've still got a chance... |
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| Forest Man-of-the-Match: | Nathan Tyson | |||||
