Forest (h); The Preview

Jon: You seem to have been hanging on the coat tails of the top six for most of the season, every time I now look back to see the points gap to seventh place there you lot are, worrying me everso slightly that we’re not going to last the course.

Are Forest’s ambition’s firmly on the play off spots or do you think you might be able to go further if you started converting more draws into wins?

David: It’s weird. We’re having our best season for ages, conceding few, scoring loads, lost only three games, significant increase in attendances and barrels of fun when we play away and yet still, we’re hanging around just outside the kitchen at the party, occasionally sneaking in, bagging some beers from the fridge before being bundled out again.

It’d be nice to get promotion automatically, you know. It really would. Really nice.

Play-offs would suffice in which anything can happen, apart from the obvious, that is: Nottingham Forest winning a play-off semi-final. Another round of play-offs would finish us off – simply too traumatic. And as it stands, there is the unpalatable possibility to playing that lot down the A52. So for the time being, let’s banish all talk of play-offs. *checks date of Championship play-off final for the first time in ages*
We do draw a lot of games but generally speaking, it’s preferable to losing loads of games.

Speaking from experience, there is little better than beating your local rivals in a play-off semi-final. You should try it, you might like it. Plus Derby always bottle it, nothing to fear there.

When we last spoke Norwich were just at the start of our, quite frankly ridiculous, run of form. Sections of our support have felt a little put out that the national media weren’t picking up on it. As far as I was concerned I’d have been happy to fly under the radar while Leeds, Frank Lampard and Villa clocked up as much screen time as the entire Kardashian clan combined. Unfortunately Sky now seem to have cottoned to the fact we’ve been quite good recently.

Since you’re a semi-sensible Non-Norfolkian, what have you made of Norwich’s ascent?

In some ways, Norwich finally coming good is a sound argument for giving a manager a little time and indulging him with patience as opposed to throwing away the bathwater, the baby and the plumbing in the event of failing to win a few games.

If ever there was a blueprint for getting out of this league, it appears to have been lost down the side of the sofa. Wolves thought outside the box, Cardiff Warnocked their way out of here and Aston Villa threw money at a leaking wall. What Farke has achieved suggests that stability and patient building without breaking the bank might just be coming back into fashion, which is something we can all get on board with.

Having said that, the feeling persists that ‘it’s only Norwich, they’ll fall away, end up in the play-offs and lose in a 7-6 thriller to Aston Villa’ or something like that.

We’re quite happy with the ‘it’s only Norwich tag’. Tell your friends about it, that might catch on.
With January looming, is it safe to say Forest will look to strengthen? Do you need ANOTHER slightly sulky striker who has all the talent but little likeability? Surely Grabban and Nelson Oliveira are kindred spirits, so it makes sense to bring them together. At this stage we’d probably take twelve tracksuits, a set of training cones and a bottle of 20/20 for the moody shit. Deal?

I once downed a bottle of kiwi 20/20 and threw up all over the park. It was luminous green too, glowing like radioactive splodge.

Nah, we’re good for 20/20…and tracksuits…and Nelson.

Have you seen the Sunderland ‘Til I Die documentary? Chris Coleman speaks about Grabban through very gritted teeth as he describes the situation of him leaving in January to go back to Bournemouth. Maybe you lot have a similar Grabban story.

He is good though isn’t he? Thought he was ‘just’ a goal scorer but his movement and hold-up play is increasingly impressive too. He seems happy and a happy Grabban scores goals.

We’ve finally got a pretty decent squad and are currently coping quite well with a mini injury crisis in defence. Strikers Daryl Murphy and Iranian Karim Ansarisfard have been getting game time recently so no huge demand to bolster the squad. Having said that, with us hanging around the play-offs, a dash around the supermarket can’t be ruled out.

No longer are we the type of club that re-signs Nelson Oliveira.

I haven’t caught the full documentary as yet but have seen a clip where Grabban pretty much says he’s returning to Bournemouth as sometimes he was getting hauled off after 65 minutes and he can’t be getting on with that. That probably sums him up.

As you say, he’s a talented lad. He gravitates into space really intelligently and seems to have a canny knack of scoring loads of rubbish goals (scuff off the arse, deflected strike, etc). That’s a nice quality to possess.

I am assuming you’ve made up the name Ansarisfard as it sounds a bit too Fast Show to be an actual footballer and you want to make out you’re well stocked in the striking department. Look, we’ll GIVE you Nelson, ok?
Moving onto other things though, we always like to hear about atmosphere stuff. How have the Forza G boys and girls been getting on? It’s easier when you’re winning isn’t it?

Lots of exciting stuff happening on the Forza and atmosphere front. The boat trip down the Trent before a home game in September is now an annual thing. Displays in the ground are infrequent but when they happen, they properly happen – better to do a great one some of the time rather than a generic one all of the time: no clappers, drums or plastic branded flags here, thank you.

All of which is to create a better atmosphere in the ground. Away from home, this has arguably been achieved but transferring that to home games is the ultimate step. Yet it’s a gradual process, ably supported by the hiring of a Bierkeller before a game and now branching out into selling exclusive scarves, all to raise funds for future big tifos. Flags as big as a stand don’t come cheap and certainly don’t grow on magic money trees.

Admittedly, losing only once away from home so far certainly helps the atmosphere in the away end but we are definitely starting to enjoy supporting our club again. It’s kinda fun – exactly as it should be.

That’s certainly the way it should be, yet often it’s not, sometimes due to expectations not really being in kilter with reality.

Moving to the game itself then – what kind of style are we expecting to be implemented from Karanka – has it evolved much in the last couple of months?

Imagine a Karanka team then take that thought and throw it in the bin.

Despite more draws than we’d like, that’s not down to a lack of going for the win. Indeed, the disproportionately high number of draws is down to defensive lapses in concentration – arguably a trait you wouldn’t necessarily associate with a Karanka team.

Away from home, we are generally mean at the back and compact in shape with a view to letting Joe Lolley, Joao Carvalho and Lewis Grabban combine to conjure a goal – something they are very capable of doing. The current midfield partnership of Jack Colback and Claudio Yacob rates very high in a league table of midfielders you’d want next to you if were unfortunate enough to ever get into a fight with a bunch of bouncers.

Should be an interesting contest then – your thugs will have to try and stop Moritz Leitner playing, with his minder Alex Tettey usually offering enough muscle so he can play with the freedom he needs. I’m plumping for a 2-2 draw, just cause we like conceding goals recently and you’re quite good at doing draws. You?

5-5. Grabban to score all five.

You can piss right off with that prediction.

David writes for Forest fanzine Bandy and Shinty, you can also buy his book ‘The History Boys’, a collection of 30 great Forest goals and players here