October 30 1999
Bassett's Revenge: Dave Bassett got his revenge today when Barnsley beat Forest 1-0 at Oakwell. It was a generally poor game with the weather conditions not helping matters. Barnsley's winner came from a dubious (replays show Hjelde did get the ball first) penalty on 56 minutes> Forest only started playing in the four minutes of injury time and could have scored twice but for two great saves from Miller when Petrachi and then Woan had excellent chances to score.
October 29 1999
Tomorrow's Team news: Latest team news for tomorrow's game against Barnsley at Oakwell is that David Platt and Nigel Quashie are definitely out. They both begin three match bans for their sendings off at Sheffield United. David Prutton is likely to start in place of Quashie, though Gianluca Petrachi is also available after coming on as a substitute against Bolton on Wednesday.
Alan Rogers is doubtful as he is suffering from an ankle injury he picked up on Wednesday night. There is also the prospect of Jim Brennan making his First Team debut tomorrow.
Brennan Deal Done: Forest have, this evening, completed the signing of Canadian left-back Jim Brennan from Bristol City. Brennan arrived at The City Ground today to discuss personal terms. We don't know the full details as yet, but the club have signed him on loan with the permanent deal to be finalized early next week.
Edwards Off To Bristol: Forest have agreed to let Christian Edwards go to Bristol City on loan for the second time in a year. This deal is separate from the Brennan deal and Forest have already agreed a fee of £100,000 should City want to make the deal permanent.
Edwards is currently out injured with a cartilage problem and won't go to City until he is fit.
October 27 1999
Another Poor Draw: Forest got another poor draw at home tonight when the drew 1-1 with Bolton Wanderers. Eidur Gudjohnsen gave Bolton the lead on 20 minutes when some poor defending allowed the Icelandic striker to turn well and fire straight past Crossley. Marlon Harewood got the equalizer for Forest seven minutes later when a lovely one two from Freedman and Harewood saw Freedman square a lovely ball into the box and Harewood slam it home past a stranded Jaaskelainen. Marlon had a similar chance four minutes later but unfortunately blasted the ball against the crossbar.
Wright Goes To Celtic: Ian Wright has signed for Celtic on a free transfer. The 35 year old striker will finish his career with the Glasgow club after spending the last two months on loan at The City Ground.
October 26 1999
Wright In Talks With Celtic: After earlier rumours in the national press it has been confirmed that John Barnes, the Celtic manager has approached West Ham with a view to taking Ian Wright to Celtic. It has also been confirmed that Ian Wright is currently in talks with Celtic over his proposed move to Scotland.
David Platt was interviewed by Sky Sports and said that he was fully aware of the situation and that Ian had to make the decision.
Tomorrow night's game against Bolton at The City Ground is the last game of Wright's current loan spell at Forest and Platt has been negotiating to get the loan extended further. Sadly, it looks as if it could be his last game for Forest if John Barnes gets his way.
October 25 1999
Platt Fights For Wright: David Platt is today trying to obtain the services of Ian Wright for at least another month. Platt said: "I will be speaking to Harry Redknapp today about Ian. Ian has been saying he wants to stay at the club. We would like Ian to stay here for the rest of the season."
It will all come down to Wright's wage demands and what level of compensation West Ham ask for the striker.
Platt Denies Todd Bid: David Platt has today dismissed the gossip in Sunday's paper linking him with a �500,000 bid for Bolton's Andy Todd. Platt dismissed the gossip saying: "I have not offered any money for Todd, that is complete rubbish."
October 23 1999
Forest 1 - 1 Stockport County: A poor game saw Forest drop two points at home today as they scraped a 1-1 draw. Neither team played well and Stockport took the lead after some poor defending from Forest. However, straight from the kick-off Forest ran at Stockport and some excellent work from Dougie Freedman saw him get through the Stockport defence to deliver a perfect cross for Ian Wright to head home.
October 22 1999
Matrecano Out For Season: Salvatore Matrecano is to be out for the rest of the season. He suffered a knee injury at Port Vale on Tuesday and was taken for an MRI scan to find out how serious the damage was. The club and Matrecano had been fearing that it could be serious and the scan has shown it to be cruciate ligament damage.
Ian Wright Wants To Stay: Ian Wright has again indicated his desire to stay at Forest for the rest of what is almost certainly his last season as a professional footballer. Wrighty said: "I've enjoyed my time at Forest and I would like to stay here for the rest of the season. It's out of my hands but nothing would please me more if the two clubs could come to some sort of agreement."
Wright's current loan deal ends next weekend and Platt is expected to start negotiating with West Ham in a bid to get the deal extended further.
Platt Confirms Brennan Is A Target: David Platt today confirmed that
Bristol City's Canadian defender Jim Brennan is a target for Forest. He
said that a 'firm enquiry' had been made for the player. With Alan Rogers now
playing as a left sided midfielder it is likely that Forest will be stepping
up the search for a left-back.
The Nottingham Evening Post are saying that Platt is confident that the deal will be wrapped up very quickly, even in time for next Wednesday's home game against Bolton and that the move could involve a swap for a Forest player.
October 21 1999
I'll Quit Rather Than Return To Forest: Carlton Palmer has taken a huge step in endearing himself to all Forest fans by saying that he would quit football rather than return to play for Forest. He told reporters, "It is important for me, until I retire, to enjoy playing football.
"Unfortunately at Nottingham Forest I did not enjoy playing the game.
"I've said to my wife that I will keep going now while I enjoy it and if another situation happened at Nottingham Forest I'd seriously consider packing the game in."
Anyone else
starting to get a sense of deja vu?
Rogers Rumours Are Rubbish: Said David Platt today, hoping to kill of the rumours once and for all. Platt insists that 'there is nothing in it'.
October 20 1999
Johnson Is Back: Andy Johnson made his long awaited return to football action when he took part in in a friendly match at Crewe earlier today. The midfielder has been out for five months with an Achilles problem which required surgery to sort out.
Johnson managed 45 minutes and now the club must wait to see if he has any adverse reactions to the run out. If he doesn't it is possible that he may see some action in Saturday's home game against Stockport.
Other notables in taking part in the game were Steve Chettle, Bernard Allou, Carlos Merino and Ian Woan. Forest ran out 2-1 winners with goals from John Burns and Andy Gray.
October 19 1999
At Last!: Forest have finally got that elusive first away win of the season, winning 0-2 at Port Vale. Forest goals came from Carragher (o.g.) On five minutes and Ian Wright on 44 minutes.
Away Win Search Continues: Forest's search for their first away win of the season continues tonight when they travel to Port Vale.
Chris Bart-Williams is expected to take some part in tonight's game after spending the whole game on the bench at Sheffield United. Ian Woan and Jon Olav Hjelde are also named in tonight's squad though whether they will play any part in tonight's game remains to be seen.
Bolton Take Allardyce: Sam Allardyce has been formally announced as the new Bolton Wanderers manager as expected.
The current crop of people linked with the vacant managers job at Notts County include Paul Hart, the current Forest youth team manager and Forest old boy Nigel Clough, currently manager of Burton Albion.
Exactly who the next Magpies manager will be we don't know, but Derek Pavis the Magpies chairman is said to be keen on Gary Brazil who took over when Allardyce left last Thursday. Brazil was Allardyce's second in command.
October 18 1999
Johnson On The Mend: Andy Johnson is recovering well from his Achilles operation. So well in fact that Forest have arranged a friendly at Crewe this Wednesday to give Johnson a run out and boost his fitness levels.
October 17 1999
Platt Apologizes: David Platt has apologized for his red card yesterday against the blades, he also says the referee was probably right to send him off. He said: "The referee was perfectly right. I can only apologize, I think it was a sending off offence. You'd have thought at my age that I'd have learnt from it by now."
Despite Platt's apology though, the events leading up to his dismissal should never have occurred as Devlin should not have been on the field at the time, however he only received a yellow card for his retaliation on Quashie instead of the red card laid down in the FA's own rules for retaliatory offences.
Platt said: "I asked the referee at half-time why he booked the Sheffield United boy and he told me it was for retaliation. Retaliation is retaliation and I thought it was a sending off offence. The teams should have remained at parity, ten against ten."
October 16 1999
Two Off In 2-1 Loss: Forest lost away from home again today when they went down 2-1 to the Blades at Bramall Lane. However, the scoreline was not the main talking point after the match this time, it was the referee and the inconsistent performances of the men in Black.
Forest had taken a one goal lead from Dougie Freedman's header late in the first half, however, about two minutes from half-time Nigel Quashie went in very hard on Paul Devlin. It was obviously a bookable offence. However, Paul Devlin chased Quashie 15 yards and smacked him in the face to start a major fracas amongst the players. All this took place right in front of the referee who saw fit to yellow card Devlin and red card Quashie. This despite the fact that it is an automatic red card to punch another player even if it is in retaliation for a bad foul.
I have no complaints about Quashie's dismissal, after seeing the replay on TV it was a bad foul, and he did then get involved in a punching match with another United player. I just can't understand how in the same afternoon, Dennis Wise can be sent off in the Liverpool v Chelsea for punching a Liverpool player, yet Paul Devlin is only booked for the same offence in our game. It takes a special kind of Wanker to be a referee - or he'd got a bet on down the bookies.
The second half saw Sheffield Wednesday take full advantage of the extra man and claw back the two goals to take the win. However the referee had not finished yet. The earlier sending off had incensed the Forest team and Alan Rogers had spent most of the second half trying to provoke Paul Devlin in to retaliation and get himself sent off. In fairness to Devlin, it wasn't his fault he wasn't sent off, the ref made that decision. But how Rogers managed to avoid being sent off I really don't know. Still, the ref needed something to tell his mates down the pub that night, so in the 89th minute as Platt made a late tackle on Devlin he decided that would be the best scalp of all and his mates would be dead impressed down the pub, so where any other player would have seen yellow for the offence he decided that Platt should see red. What a twat, and they pay him for it.
When are the FA going to sort out these idiots and tell them that the fans are paying hefty fees at the gate to see two teams of 11 men playing football against each other, not a prat in black who thinks he is the one everyone has come to see.
October 15 1999
Wright To Play: Ian Wright will play in this afternoon's game at Sheffield United after sitting out his one match suspension during Wednesday night's Worthington Cup game against Sheffield Wednesday.
October 14 1999
Fulham Rearranged Again: The date for the Fulham game has been rearranged again after England were drawn to play Scotland in the Euro 2000 qualifiers. The game was to have been played on the same night, but fears that the game would play to an empty house as everyone stayed away to watch the international game have prompted the rearrangement.
The new date has been pencilled in for December 15, however, this is also the date for the Worthington Cup 5th round. Fulham are still in the Worthington Cup, so the date could change again depending on their progress in the 4th round.
October 13 1999
Wednesday 4 - 1 Forest: Forest managed to turn their first half dominance into a defeat this evening. They started the game much the better team and as half time approached looked like they would get something from the game, but two minutes before the end of the half some suicidal defending allowed the owls to take the lead. From then on the game went down hill for Forest and Freedman got Forest's consolation with about six minutes to go.
England V Scotland: Not strictly Forest related, but worthwhile mentioning anyway. Scotland were the first name out of the hat in this mornings draw for the Euro 2000 playoffs and England followed them as the second name. This means Scotland will play England in the two legged fixture, the first leg to be played in Scotland on Saturday 13 or Sunday 14 November and the return leg at Wembley will take play on the following Wednesday.
October 11 1999
No Wright For Blades: Ian Wright will not be playing on Saturday when Forest travel to Bramell Lane for the Nationwide league fixture against Sheffield Wednesday. Instead he will be sitting out the one match ban he picked up for his red card against Wolves.
Wright should have served his ban against Fulham last Sunday but the match was postponed due to international duties.
Wright will not be playing on Wednesday night against Sheffield Wednesday, in The Worthington Cup. This time though it is at the insistence of Harry Redknapp who does not want the on-loan striker to become cup-tied.
October 9 1999
Academy Cash Boost: Forest have announced that they will be investing �1.8 million into their Youth Academy to make it one of the country's best.
The cash boost will help provide facilities such as two all-weather pitches, a floodlit pitch and redevelopment of offices and changing rooms at the Wilford Lane site.
Reg Dove, one of the directors on the board said: "I believe we already have the best youth director in the country - Paul Hart - and our facilities will now also be among the most advanced in the country."
The best news though is that the investment will not affect how much manager David Platt will be able to spend in the transfer market.
October 7 1999
Crossley Wants To Stay: Mark Crossley wants to finish his career at Forest and is looking for an extension to his current contract which runs out at the end of this season.
Crossley who is currently training with the Welsh squad, hinted that a new deal is very close to being agreed.
October 6 1999
Marlon's Reminder To Platt: Marlon Harewood sent a timely reminder to David Platt by scoring Forest's goal in the reserve team game last night against Arsenal reserves at Highbury.
With all the talk about what Platt is doing over in America at the moment centering around the signing of Stern John, Marlon scored the opening goal of the game to let Platt know he is still around.
Should Platt sign Stern John it is highly likely that Marlon will slip further sown the pecking order of first team strikers.
The final result was Arsenal Res. 1 - 1 Forest Res.
October 5 1999
Platt Flies Off: At the start of this evenings 'natter with Norm' Big Norm announced that David Platt had had to pull out of his appearance at the event due to urgent club business. This got the audience started on the 'who's he signing then?' questions.
The panel refused to answer these questions on the grounds that the SKY TV cameras were present and they couldn't give anything away.
As the evening rolled on one of the senior members of the panel (oh alright then, it was Mark Arthur, the new Chief Executive) let it slip that Platt had flown out to the States. When Arthur realized what he had said he clammed up pretty sharply and the panel refused to answer the audiences questions relating to a certain Stern John.
We can only say that as Platt had flown out to the states then the logical target must be Stern John, so watch this space for more news.
'Natter With Norm': Tonight sees the next event in Mark Crossley's testimonial year taking place at Jongleurs in Nottingham. The event features 'Big Norm', David Platt, Riccy Scimeca and Nigel Clough.
The event starts at 7:45 and tickets are �5.
October 3 1999
Petrachi Injury Fears: It looks like midfielder Gianluca Petrachi could be out for several weeks after limping of injured in Friday's game against Barnsley. Petrachi looks to have suffered a recurrence of his hamstring problem.
October 2 1999
Fulham Game Postponed: The Fulham game, to be featured live on Sky next Sunday (10/10/99) has been postponed due to International call-ups. The match has been rescheduled for Wednesday 17 November.
October 1 1999
Rogers Link With Liverpool Denied: Interviewed by Sky TV last night Alan Rogers told the Sky camera's he was a Forest player until the management told him otherwise.
David Platt said when asked about the link that he had been in touch with Liverpool but no bid had been made for Rogers.
Barnsley Beaten: High-scoring Barnsley failed to score tonight as Forest beat them 3-0 here at The City Ground. A very disappointing first half saw the teams go in 0-0 at half time.
I can only assume that Platt's team-talk at half time was better than Bassett's as Forest came out for the second half looking much the better side. Forest's goal scorers were Rogers, Bonalair and Freedman - ironically all three were signed for Forest by Dave Bassett.
Barnsley did get the ball in the net through Hristov, but the effort was disallowed for handball (TV replays did confirm this despite Hristov's protestations).
For a full match report see the fixtures page.
Bassets Back: Dave Basset returns to The City Ground this evening for the first time since he was sacked by the club in January.
Basset brings his Barnsley squad down for tonight's game, which is televised live on Sky.
Barnsley are currently the divisions leading scorers and could go second in the league if they win. Despite being the leagues highest scorers they do concede a few goals as well; looks like the game is all set for 0-0 then!
It is understood that Forest old-boys Geoff Thomas and Neil Shipperley are both injured and will not take part in the game. Forest team news is that Steve Chettle is still out with a back injury and Matrecano will be rested. Mark Crossley and Petrachi are both expected to return.
Platt Denies Gudjohnsen Bid: David Platt has issued a statement that denies Forest making a reported �1million bid for Bolton's Icelandic striker Eidur Gudjohnsen. Platt said: "We have made an enquiry, but reports about a bid are not true."