Nottingham Forest v Ipswich Town
Saturday 1st December 2018 – 15:00
City Ground
Pre-Match Thoughts - Mike
Is There Any Way Back ?
I've got to be honest, drumming up any enthusiasm or interest in penning this article has been far from easy, in fact it's bloody painful. Just when you think things can't get any worse our trusty boys in Blue come up trumps and take things to another level. Wednesday's game at home to Bristol City was billed by many as a must win game, failure to do so would have us on the cusp of oblivion, so how fitting was it that we should dish up some of the worst defending known to man in a game that potentially meant so much. Most of us saw it, you had to see it to believe it, a goalkeeper that could not catch Ebola in a Kinshasa Brothel, I bet the bouncer down the c*ck & Pye pub could keep out more, A Right Back that quite frankly would struggle in Sunday Morning Football and Two or Three others that should be ashamed to collect their wages, what chance do you have ?
So just where do we go from here ? The finger is being pointed very firmly at Marcus Evans and his lack of investment in strengthening the team, clearly Paul Hurst has to take a large chunk of the blame too but then again it was a plan the club opted to pursue, was Hurst just a pawn in the game, lets face it would any of us have turned down the chance of a lucrative job, of course we wouldn't. One thing is certain if we don't give Paul Lambert a significant kitty in January it will end in rivers of tears, for what it is worth I think we are already there, it may still only be a Six point gap but Forest & Stoke up next !! Not a hope in hell, the gap is going to widen for sure.
Is It Really Any Better ?
When any new manager arrives at a Football club it will inevitably raise the hopes of the fans, a new broom sweeps clean and all that, sometimes the smallest things come across as massive strides forward, we all do it and we all think it but I have done nothing but think the last Twenty Plus hours about just how much things have improved, have they even improved at all under PL ? We still can't win a game, we still gift goal after goal to the opposition, we still look woefully short in certain areas of the game, is it just my mood right now or are we actually no damn better at all ?
I have loved the way Paul Lambert has spoken with his vision for the future etc but we seem so far away with the playing personnel we have that I just cannot see him being able to bring in the number of players required to get us out of this mess, my head is all over the place with ITFC right now and I am hoping I am seeing issues much bigger than they actually are, after all I did say get to January with the gap no bigger and we have a chance, it's amazing how last night has affected my mood.
Next up we have a trip to Nottingham Forest, a ground where I have seen us throw away wins Two or Three times in Injury time, I am certain it won't happen again as we will be well beaten by then, Forest are on a decent run of form and have crept into the play off places, they have a big squad to choose from and are free scoring as Wednesday night shows us, they are unbeaten in Six League games and will see this game as a bit of a bye, another depressing journey home Saturday evening.
I think this is the first time I have ever felt this despondant about my beloved ITFC, I must confess I never saw us falling so low, struggling to keep pace with the likes of Rotherham, Bolton and Hull, it is heartbreaking. I've never had to think twice about going to see us play but I had already decided to miss QPR away on Boxing day, family comes first, but I am also very tempted to return my ticket for Middlesbrough away on the 29th December, Ten hours on a coach to watch some of those tools suddenly seems like going well beyond the call of duty. Never thought I would say this but right now I am falling out of love with it all, the interest is starting to wane and cutting the grass almost sounds far more favorable, yes even in December. I hope to god this feeling passes because I would have Fifteen new grounds to visit next season.
The Opposition - Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest F.C. was founded in 1865 shortly after their neighbours Notts County, thought to be the world's oldest surviving professional association football club. They joined the Football Alliance in 1889 and then entered to The Football League. In 1890, Forest moved to the Town Ground, playing in the first ever match to use goal nets.
Forest claimed their first major honour when they won the 1898 FA Cup, beating Derby County.
The club spent most of the first half of the twentieth century in the Second Division. In 1949, they were relegated to the Third Division but were promoted two years later as champions.
Forest regained First Division status in 1957 and won the FA Cup for a second time in 1959.
After being runners-up in the League and Cup semi-finalists in 1967, Forest were relegated from the First Division in 1972.
Forest were considered an underachieving club by English league standards until the mid-1970s, when Brian Clough and his assistant Peter Taylor took the helm at the club. Clough became the most successful manager in the history of Nottingham Forest.
Nottingham Forest won promotion to the top division at the end of the 1976–77 season after finishing third in the Second Division, but no-one could have predicted how successful Clough's team would be over the next three seasons. Nottingham Forest became one of the few teams (and the most recent team to date) to win the English First Division Championship a year after winning promotion from the English Second Division (1977–78 season).
In 1978–79, Forest went on to win the European Cup by beating Malmö and retained the trophy in 1979–80, beating Hamburg.
They also won the European Super Cup and two League Cups. Beside Shilton, key players of that era included right-back Viv Anderson (the first black player to play for the England national team), midfielder Martin O'Neill, striker Trevor Francis and a trio of Scottish internationals: winger John Robertson, midfielder Archie Gemmill and defender Kenny Burns. The club reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1983–84 but were knocked out by Anderlecht in controversial circumstances. It later emerged that in the second leg, the Belgian club had bribed the referee but the referee in question had since died in a car accident and was hence not able to be held to account.
Nottingham Forest's next significant trophy came in 1989 when they beat Luton Town in the League Cup final. For most of the season they had been hopeful of completing a unique domestic treble, but were beaten into third place in the League by Arsenal and Liverpool and lost to Liverpool in the replay of the FA Cup semi-final, originally held at Hillsborough, where 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death.
Clough's side retained the League Cup in 1990 when they beat Oldham Athletic and were runner-up in the 1991 FA Cup Final.
Brian Clough's 18-year reign as manager ended in May 1993 when Forest were relegated from the inaugural Premier League after 16 illustrious years of top-flight football which had seen a league title, two European Cups and four League Cups.
Frank Clark, who had been a left-back in Nottingham Forest's 1979 European Cup winning team, returned to the club in May 1993 and was able to achieve a return to the Premier League when the club finished Division One runners-up at the end of the 1993–94 season.
Forest finished third in 1994–95 and qualified for the UEFA Cup – their first entry to European competition in the post-Heysel era. The club reached the quarter-finals, the furthest an English team reached in UEFA competitions that season. The 1996–97 season became a relegation battle and Clark left the club in December.
34-year-old captain Stuart Pearce was installed as player-manager and in March 1997 he was replaced on a permanent basis by Dave Bassett. Forest were unable to avoid relegation and finished the season in bottom place. They won promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt, being crowned Division One champions in 1997–98, however Bassett was sacked in January 1999, with Ron Atkinson replacing him.
Ron Atkinson was unable to prevent Forest from once again slipping back into the Football League with a succession of poor results.
David Platt succeeded Atkinson and spent approximately £12 million on players, which yielded two mid-table finishes before departing to manage England U-21s.
Paul Hart became the Reds' new boss just two hours after the departure of Platt. Despite off-field difficulties, due to the ITV Digital collapse, Forest finished 2002–03 in sixth place and qualified for the play-offs, where they lost to Sheffield United in the semi-finals. A poor league run the following season, led to the sacking of Hart in February 2004 in order to prevent relegation.
Joe Kinnear was subsequently appointed and led the club to 14th place in the final league table. The 2004–05 season saw Forest drop into the relegation zone once more, leading to Kinnear's resignation in December 2004.
Following the brief caretaker stewardship of Mick Harford, Gary Megson took charge of Forest in January 2005 but failed to stave off relegation as the club ended the season second from bottom in 23rd place, becoming the first European Cup-winners ever to fall into their domestic third division.
In Forest's first season in the English third tier in 54 years, Megson survived until February 2006 when he left by "mutual consent" leaving the club only four points above the relegation zone. Frank Barlow and Ian McParland took temporary charge for the remainder of the 2005–06 season, engineering a six-match winning run and remaining unbeaten in ten games, taking 28 points from a possible 39 under the two, narrowly missing out on a play-off place, as they finished in 7th place.
Colin Calderwood was appointed as the twelfth manager of Forest in thirteen years in May 2006 and became the longest-serving manager since Frank Clark. The Calderwood era was ultimately one of rebuilding. In his first season he led the club to the play-offs, and achieved automatic promotion in his second year at the club. Calderwood's side struggled to adapt to life in the Championship in the 2008–09 campaign, and having been unable to steer Forest out of the relegation zone, Calderwood was sacked following a Boxing Day defeat.
Under the temporary stewardship of John Pemberton, Forest finally climbed out of the relegation zone, and Billy Davies was confirmed as the new manager on 1 January 2009. They avoided relegation as they finished 19th in the Championship, securing survival with one game to go.
The 2009–10 campaign was a successful one for Forest with the club holding a top-three position for the majority of the season, narrowly missing out on automatic promotion to West Bromwich Albion, and then lost to Blackpool in the playoffs.
The 2010–11 season saw Forest finish in sixth place in the Championship table putting them into a play-off campaign for the fourth time in the space of eight years, this time around they lost to Swansea over the two playoff semi-final legs.
In June 2011 Billy Davies's contract was terminated, and he was replaced as manager by Steve McClaren, who signed a three-year contract.
Forest started the 2011–12 season with several poor results and McClaren resigned, and chairman Nigel Doughty announced that he intended to resign at the end of the season. In October 2011, Nottingham Forest underwent several changes. These changes included the appointment of Frank Clark as new chairman of the club and also that of Steve Cotterill as manager.
Nigel Doughty, owner and previous chairman of the club died on 4 February 2012, marking the end of a 13-year association with the club, with many estimating his total contribution as £100,000,000.
The Al-Hasawi family, from Kuwait, purchased the club and became the new owners in July 2012.The Al-Hasawi family told press that they had a long-term vision for the club based around a 3–5-year plan, and after interviewing several potential new managers, appointed Sean O'Driscoll, he was known for playing an attractive brand of passing football and what football fans would consider the Forest way.
As of 15 December 2012 after the teams 0–0 draw away at Brighton, Forest sat in 9th position with 33 points, just 3 points off the play-off positions. Just over two weeks later Sean O'Driscoll was sacked following a 4–2 victory over Leeds United with the club stating their intentions of a change ahead of the January transfer window and hopes of appointing a manager with Premiership experience. The man to replace O'Driscoll was Alex McLeish. On 5 February 2013 Nottingham Forest and Alex McLeish had parted company by mutual agreement, just 40 days after McLeish took charge of Forest.
On 7 February 2013, the club re-appointed Billy Davies as manager, having been sacked as the team's manager twenty months previously. His first match in charge was a draw, followed by a run of 10 undefeated games. On 24 March 2014 the club announced they had terminated Davies' employment, following a defeat by Derby County. After initially rejecting the job in March 2014, fans favourite, Stuart Pearce was named as the man to replace Billy Davies on a two year contract, taking over from caretaker manager Gary Brazil.
After a bright start to his tenure, Forest started to slip down the table and on the 1st February 2015, Dougie Freedman was appointed manager of the club in place of Pearce.
On 13 March 2016 Freedman was sacked and Rennes head coach Philippe Montanier was appointed on a two-year contract on June 27, 2016, but sacked after 7 months.
Mark Warburton was named as the club's new manager on 14 March 2017.
On 18 May 2017 it was confirmed that Evangelos Marinakis had completed his takeover of Nottingham Forest, bringing an end to Al-Hasawi's reign as Forest owner.
On 8 January 2018, Aitor Karanka was appointed manager replacing Warburton.
Last season Forest finished in 17th place with 53 points.
The Manager – Aitor Karanka
K L Blue - Media Watch
Lee Johnson's view on Town
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/foo ... on-2274362
Sears Backs Bart
https://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/freddie-se ... -1-5800222
Do you agree with David GG?
https://www.twtd.co.uk/blogs/21753/wher ... -stripping
A View about management
https://www.theleaguepaper.com/featured ... n-shunned/
An old article, but what's your view/ do you agree?
https://www.theleaguepaper.com/featured ... new-tykes/
Form Guide
Nottingham Forest Last 5 Matches currently in 6th place with 31 points
27 Oct Leeds Utd 1 - 1 Nottm Forest
3 Nov Nottm Forest 1 - 0 Sheffield Utd
10 Nov Nottm Forest 0 - 0 Stoke City
24 Nov Hull City 0 - 2 Nottm Forest
28 Nov Aston Villa 5 - 5 Nottm Forest
Ipswich Last 5 Matches currently in 24th place with 11 points
27 Oct Millwall 3 - 0 Ipswich Town
3 Nov Ipswich Town 1 - 1 Preston
10 Nov Reading 2 - 2 Ipswich Town
23 Nov Ipswich Town 1 - 2 West Bromwich
28 Nov Ipswich Town 2 - 3 Bristol City
Marko’s Caption Contest – THE DON CUP
WBA scores
Nicscreamer 5pts
Ando, Bluemike & Derick 4pts
Blueblood (lambert quotes) & Number9 (WBA fan) 3pts
Tangfastic 2pts
LEAGUE TABLE
TANGFASTIC 43
NICSREAMER 39
FROSTY 38
DERICKIPSW 33
BLUEMIKE 31
ANDO 28
IPSWICHTOWNNO1 25
BLUEBLOOD 24
NUMBER9 21
AYLESBURYBLUE 20
WATERSHIP DOWN 11
PATTHEGIMP 8
BARMY BILLY 6
SHED ON TOUR 5
BLUE WILF 4
JOHNNYB 4
BLUEPETER 3
MASSEYFERGUSON 3
MARVINBAY1973 2
CHARNWOOD 1
KL BLUE 1
OHIOTRACTORBOY 1
Last Lambo pic, (honest)
Try this one; picture was taken right after Bart asked if he played ok v Bristol City.
Match Referee – James Linington
NOTTINGHAM FOREST 1 IPSWICH TOWN 1
Who knows ... 1 kiss as* comment now and again can buy you 10 digs. 
), otherwise Forest will have a field day. 
