The rise of theTwitter reds

Approx 3 yrs ago i joined a new social network called twitter .My own take on twitter was that it was for film stars to tell people how rich they were and for soap stars to pretend to be famous.I wasnt aware that this network would become so powerfull in my life especially  to a red who can only get his fix from afar either via the internet...ie Forest world , this is Nottingham (evening post) or clipets of news from the team of sky sports news.
I soon learned within a few weeks of joining twitter that this site was quite good  for talking to friends and family , like @browners23 whom is my daughter and @sbrownley my son .Lyndsey is a twitter elder and has been on longer than me ,she actually learned me how to #ff (follow friday) via the hashtag which i must confess was a good laugh in the early days but as of now you have to really achieve something for me to give out a random #ff  and to be honest its become pointless. Although im not ungratefull if someone mentions me in one.My son stuart and wife gillian  ( @poshscot60 )are not as keen and their followers numbers prove their interactiveness..i digress...Also this twitter gave me access to another family.yes the family of #NFFC
I started to go off following just any old tweeter even if they were famous , My tweeters were now mostly supporters of Nottingham Forest , The chance to not only talk to regular forest goers but to also share in the highs and lows of different match day experiences. ..like my friend from wales who ive never met @sparkyrite who started the now legendry #luckybeers club. as everytime there was a game on Mike would open a #luckybeer when the opposition went in front as to promote a forest comeback...this did not always work and mike was prob in a coma trying to claw back some goals!!!! Then there is @stephenthecamel another loyal red who i actually had the pleasure of meeting at pride park ,he even bought me n lyndsey a beer ...the power of twitter eh.He always entertains as does @elliott_stanley. Another good red who travels home and away and gives some excellent views, where was i .oh aye...yes we all get to share the pre match build up , the match itself and the dissection of the end result, even being allowed to get a comment on radio Nottingham by tweeting @sportschippers and @matchtalk ,so as you can see twitter has become a un missable part of the match day experience . One of the funniest parts of following twitter reds is the frantic panic and rumour that surrounded the club regarding firstly our new owners , After the sad loss of our Nigel Doughty twitter went into overdrive and even before @fawaz_alhasawi had taken his seat it was rumoured he was penniless especially from our sheep friends down the A5-2 .Not all ram fans are bad though @bucktaylor64 is a friendly derby fan whom says it as it is and is usually fair. As everyone has seen this week our owners arnt skint and could hold a formula 1 grand prix with his car collection .Another twitter frenzy was caused by the recent manager appointments , oh the ridicule and fun that was written after mcClaren / cotterill/ SOD... & McCleish were appointed then de - appointed it made twitter a very dark place to trawl .The negativity was terrible..but you just couldnt stop looking through the #nffc timeline for any new gossip  , i will never forget the days leading upto  KING BILLYS return , word had got out that he might return , twitter went ballistic and i was like many others wearing out my finger on the refresh button ...then it happened as i walked through Ikea one day my signal was poo and billy was given the nod .all i wanted to do was see my twitter page but i couldnt , i was missing out on a where was you on this day moment ,, when suddenly whilst buying frozen meatballs a picture of billy signing in fawazs home came through on my timeline...hoorah i shouted ...and the people of warrington looked at me as if i was mad..
And all this was made possible because of the great intractiveness of the red army ...another funny thing ive noticed is the way #nffc & #dcfc followers hate each other sending grevious replies to each other , then all of a sudden a leicester city fan (#lcfc) pipes up and the next min forest and derby fans stand together to denounce these charletons who dare to be wanting to be hated as a enemy ...so like two brothers they send them away with the slogan we only hate each other ...sorry #lcfc but your just not hated enough now run along .
So as you can see the rise of the #nffc tweeter is just getting bigger and bigger , i believe a year ago we were one of the biggest tweeting fans in the country ...ask @HOMESofFOOTBALL he sells pictures of football grounds and has a massive fan following he ran a followers competition and #nffc were by far the winners .
As ive said before ive met a couple of you forest tweeters @neilparny @nickparker will be with me in some dive in burnley in a couple of weeks time as probably will be @jimcollingham.....@geordiedave44  wont as he has sacrificed his ticket for me and i thank him so much. thats the power of the #nffc twitter red army we look after each other..before i go and stop boring you a special mention for @oscarforest1 my twitter nephew and @iredjim a blackpool red
If ive not mentioned you it dosnt mean ive forgot you ...by the way im not really a fish or basil brush .......Boom Boom ...#yesthatsit

Cruel game this...

First and foremost i have to say this game wont be remembered by most but due to the special comeback it was worth remembering..

Coventry city, League cup. wed 28th November 1990..
Left Edwinstowe and set off to Coventry me mick and the wragg brothers , It was my turn to drive in my Austin ambassador car which my old man sold or gave to me i cant remember which..it was the model after the princess but better, in fact it was quite a luxurious ride..everyone used to love away games when i drove ...only for the car though as my navigational skills where pretty poor on one certain trip to white hart lane i managed to get us to wembley !!! Took some stick for that too, mind we were there quite alot wernt we..We arrived at Coventry about half five ish and parked at the back of a pub , i think it was called the golden ball, Anyway forest coaches used to be parked their also .The pub was obviously full of reds and soon it was rather noisy . Beer plus forest = Noise.

Out the pub turn left then a right up the hill and hey presto outside the away terrace at Highfield road . The wraggs went in the terracing and me n mick walked up and turned left where the away seats were, 2 tiers of seats upper and lower of which we were lower ,separated from the Coventry fans by a massive mesh or perspex screen not sure which the memory is fading to be honest. Was quite funny as their LADS used to always sit there and try and cause a disturbance of which forest usually encouraged ...well the previous 2 years had seen forest lift the league cup so we were quite expecting a win, What happened next was a complete disaster within 35 minutes forest were 4-0 down ..in fact some reds fans actually left for home, little did they know what would happen next , Nigel Clough scored a hat trick putting us 4-3 down at half time, I can honestly say we were in raptures after Cloughs quick bursts before ht..my heart was jumping out its cage,we. Had gone from agony to Ecstasy in one 45 Min's of football..in the second half forest came out and Garry Parker did the unimaginable, equalising from four down .....wow i said wow i was on the floor i was everywhere. Forest were level 0-4 down and now 4-4 ..this was a game that gives you a heart attack. But.....a certain Steve Livingstone had different ideas and scored a winner it was one of the cruelest defeats Ive ever witnessed ,The Coventry fans celebrated like they had won the world cup , i know it felt like we had lost the world cup..The game ended and every forest and Coventry fan in the ground gave both teams a ovation, i was so proud of the reds that day as they gave 100% to get us through the tie.. I would be able to put this game in my top 10 of all time forest games even though we lost , because football is all about highs and lows ....on this occasion  it wasn't to be.

 Just another short adventure from the fish....

The magnificent seven ..three

20th march 2012  dirty Leeds v Nottingham Forest at Elland rd ....i wasnt going to this game but id been off work for most of march with a torn miniscus in my right knee. Having put in the proper leave application to the wife i was given the nod and within 2.3 seconds ,arrangements had been made and i was going to the game ...after a few tweets to certain other #nffc   followers i had a buddy all the way from preston to leeds, All i knew about @dnohall86 was his name was dean and he lived in blackpool supported forest but came from gods favourite county.....Nottinghamshire.
So i picked up my crutches and hobbled to the car , mrs monkfish drove me to blackpool pleasure beach train station and gave me my not to get too pissed orders as i was off sick and also on crutches , I agreed as any good husband does and went on my way to preston on 14:42 northern service ...by the way mrs monkfish hates being called mrs monkfish so if you meet her , youve been warned!!!!
The 15:54 york service pulled into preston with @dnoHall86 already on he was sat at the back of the train at a table with a four pack of strongbow .I dont know if you have ever met people off twitter or any other site for that matter but i find it quite amusing how people just arnt like they seem in the virtual world , Dean hall is about 22 black hair 5 ft 8ish fresh faced and very likeable he had one of those jackets teenagers in the fonz used to wear in usa .Anyway the journey to leeds was quite amusing with the usual tales of forest long past and not so long past.. dean got slowly merry on his cider.and we pulled into leeds station at 17:39 first thing to do was get a pint ..so into wetherspoons we went , Good mixture of city types and scarfers made the busy pub very. Friendly , mind if they had known we was reds would probably have been less welcoming. After couple of beers and googleing the maps for directions it was decided we would get a taxi to the ground as id never make it on crutches.How much ..ten quid to ground , robbing git , we were dropped off just near the statue of Billy bremner the leeds hero from way back when . Im sure he threw a punch as we walked by ....Dirty leeds ...
As we walked behind a few yorkies to the away end we heard lots of positives about how they would beat forest especially after the hammering they dished out to us at the city ground earlier in the season .We arrived at the away corner of elland road and met up with my daughter who is also a twitterer Aka @browners23 and a couple of friends whom i used to travel with to most home and away games before i went into hibernation .Once again i was pickpocketed as £34 was prized out of my wallet for a ticket to this clash of 2 ex heavyweights of the football world .., me lyndsey and dean made our way into the ground .by this time i had had lots of abuse due to my disablement...forest fans are so caring.
Into the john charles stand we go i hobble up to the bar level which is up 2 flights of stairs where lots of reds are eating expensive burgers and drinking rather weak lager..weak or not get em in .kick off is in ten mins now so i go to the gents which is back down two flights of stairs ..my arms were killing from the crutches digging into my arms  . At the bottom of the stairs was a german lady who looked like she was a model for shameless...she sounded like she was half cocked ...she was it was Ebbys wife, after she had entertained us with her intelligent outbursts of gobbleygook i got chatting to one of the leeds stewards, This guy had a man utd tattoo on his neck and had supervised away fans since the eighties , he even recollected remembering them from years ago , cant see why anyone would remember mr n mrs Ebby ! Back up the stairs and into the ground we was half way up the stand ,good following from Nottingham yet again prob around 2k but thats just a guess .
The game kicked off and was quite even until pep was adjudged to have fouled mcCormack in the box ..penalty to dirty leeds , Snodgrass does the duty and its 1-0 , Here we go one of my rare ventures with forest was going tits up after less than 10 mins .leeds had not let many in after colin  had taken charge 5 games ago ,so you can imagine our delight when adlene guedioura scored one of the best goals a forest player has ever scored, not since a certain Tommy Gaynor goal i once witnessed at huddersfield in a league cup game many years ago...1-1 we went mental my crutches were in the air , the rest of the first half was pretty much all forest if i remember and on the stroke of half time Gareth McCleary Scored a lovely worked goal right in front of the travelling trickies once again we celebrated crutches aloft 2-1 forest great comeback forest ...Half time came at a bad time for us i thought as we were playing really well now ,in fact leeds were booed off .Little did i know this was going to be as franki valli would say ....oh what a night...
Out came the reds , carrying on where we left off and it was mr Dexter Blackstock who headed in a lovely reid cross   1-3 we was in heaven and elland road was stunned.Then it turned on its head yet again Becchio scored one and the ground came alive again, next thing Brown scores a lovely volley right in front of a now gob smacked red army...we stand mouths open thinking its only a matter of time for a leeds winner .....STOP....something very strange happened. McCleary goes straight down other end and scores ,

 

my crutches are now upright in the air, wish the BBC had shown the reds going mental must have looked funny a cripple going ape...

next min we are up 3-5 yet again young gareth scores . when McClearys fourth and forest sixth goes in we know we are witnessing a special game , everyone was taking pictures of the gigantic scoreboard with the 3-6 score for all to see ,

but forest wernt finished and super dexter blackstock puts the icing on the cake making it seven ...three..once again pictures were taken of the scoreboard and hug a red next to you started ,

 never seen everyone look as happy since the famous sheep cull at the city ground when earnie tore derby a new hole. Five mins extra time was signalled and i bode everyone a farewell and wished a rather worse for wear dean lots of luck on his evening out in leeds after the game ,he told me he was staying with a mate in the city so i was now on my own ... I hobbled out of Elland road with a massive smile on my face , as i mixed into the crowd all i could hear were moaning leeds , not once did i hear "forest were good though"  luckily i got a Taxi straight away from around the same place i was dropped off , Another Dick turpin charges me another tenner and i get to leeds station ,my train is for manchester at 22:10 , Burger king it is then ... as i stand eating my burger on the very cold platform loads of leeds arrive for their trains home and cant stop grinning, i get to piccadilly at quarter to twelve and wait for the 00:15 to blackpool north were i eventually arrive at 01:30 into a black cab and home for 2am as i put my head on my pillow i know i have just been at a game that will always be in forest folklore  , just like the 5-2 derby game or the 0-1 Bristol semi which im still drying out from .Mrs Monkfish stirrs from her coma and asks if im ok ,i couldnt wait to tell her we won 3-7 at leeds united , "yeah ok goodnight" ....oh well ..ha ha dirty leeds

http://youtu.be/OvO5LFSSDZ8