Build a Bonfire..

         

"Grow up Glyn will ya".....OK OK !! , me and my good lady wife Gillian have just driven past a sign on the motorway its not just any old sign its a sign which tells you your entering a county called Derbyshire, The reason for my loved ones reaction was the fact that id just given it the old two fingered salute ! something i have always done when entering or leaving this dread full place, as a matter of a fact when i alternately enter gods own Nottinghamshire ,my fist punches the air ( or car roof) and i gleefully celebrate my coming home, These are sad but pleasing little rivalry scenarios which has prob already struck a chord with a few? in fact i bet its the same for them....Mind I'm not as mad as to never want to use white paint or eat lamb but yes there is a rivalry all be it a healthy one, I got to thinking which 3 forest v derby games really stand out and my answer is......
First one which stands out for me was 30th Oct 1985 a midweek 3rd rd Milk cup (lge cup) tie at Derby.....Me and Dave Hallam travelled by bus & got dropped off near the station and we all piled  off and straight into a pub. after a couple of jars up to the old baseball ground we went...my god it was kicking off all over, into the ground and straight into the swaying mass of forest fans pushing and shoving ,packed together like sardines ,just wish some of the newer breed could experience these nights..cant recollect the  match itself all i remember is Franz Carr scoring a header and the whole end went mental..2-1.wow what a night..mind I'm sure derby were in the old 3rd div and we were 1st div .

Now the second game id rank in my top 3 has to be the game at the City ground on 19th march 2003, it was a Wednesday evening  and a certain Darren Huckerby was on loan from Manchester city ,I was sat in the upper Brian Clough and the whole ground was bouncing ...derby were floundering in the league and their manager was John Gregory , That night forest produced a brilliant display and really humiliated our enemy, Marlon Harewood scored 2 and hucks scored the third , Andy Reid was fantastic that night which all culminated in the sacking of John Gregory...(although he won a million quid off derby for unfair dismissal...)

My 3rd and final game is probably the best game forest have produced against the rams since ...well since god wer a lad..!!

29th December 2010 @ the City Ground Nottingham ..a return for Judas commons and a Misty night on the Trent saw a forest side destroy the sheep , I was sat in the upper tier above the sheep fans in the then capital one corner , the atmosphere  was amazing and what unfolded was one of my best ever nights at a game . after 2 Min's forest went one up through chambers but derby were soon level when Moore scored hitting the underside of the bar, the reds kept at it though and a brilliant goal from Tudgay made it 2-1 from a brilliant cross from Ernie heading onto the underside of the bar, The ground was rocking now and a third goal just before half time from Tudgay yet again made it a very happy half time, After the break a Earnshaw goal gave rise to one of BBC radio Nottingham's Colin Frays  2 famous lines that night at 4-1 Colin said 

" And on a misty night on trentside it gets better & better & better" these words bring shivers down my spine when i watch the highlights from that night, Chris commons (aka Judas bastard) scored from a free kick to make it 4-2 and then tried to wind the city ground up pointing at hisname on his shirt and then holding his belly..i think we actually got to him that night?, but it didn't stop the red steam roller and super Robert Earnshaw finally broke the woolly backs hearts by shooting in a 5th goal and there on, giving Colin Fray a chance to spout those immortal words " And Forest have hit Five against Derby ...forest 5 derby 2 its actually still my ringtone ..if you want it feel free to ask..

                                        

that night i went into Nottingham and let me tell you the night club we were in were all singing you've lost that loving feeling ...Ace what a night..

That I'm sure are my top 3 games with the sheep a special mention to the 0-1 Chapman game at the baseball ground and the Gary Charles own goal gaff game  also at the old BBG the Earnshaw  0-1 first win at pride less park ever game also brings back great memories too, as you all know we have had our fair share of bad times with the sheep to being on the losing end far to many times in the last 15 odd years but with Billy back and Fawaz hopefully the tide will turn back in our favour? .

I have been to PP five times and never seen us lose there so any spare ticket should be offered to me in Feb as to keep up my red lucky streak...i digress ...so as i bid you a great game in a few days time at the city ground on Sept 28th 2013 and hope it can nudge one of the above games out of my top 3 ? only time will tell  anyone want to leave any comments, re their fav 3 games are more than welcome to leave below and maybe i will do a piece on the majoritys favourites?.....please click on the link below for a bit of adrenalin  for the game ahead..cheers the fish.

Forest 5-2 Derby

MY take on another deadline day at NFFC

Its Tuesday the 3rd of Sept and last night at 11pm the transfer window slammed shut for the English leagues, after watching sky sports for around 10 hours the constant regurgitation of minimal activity ,it was decided at 21,15 time to go to my bed and see what unfolded whilst i dreamt of the what might and might not happen , I awoke at approx 05.45 and checked my trusty twitter feed to see what had occurred , the first post i saw was from the well respected and quite famous Daniel Taylor the head of football at the  guardian and well known Nffc lover...his re tweet of Fawaz Al Hasawi's statement with a 'sighs' comment immediately made me realise Forest had failed to land anyone, on further inspections of other reds fans tweets it was of no surprise that Adlene guedioura looked to have taken the kings shilling and moved the world renowned Crystal palace FC after being so kind as to put in a transfer request early on Tues morning to save forest having to pay him a loyalty bonus...this seemed to go down really well with lots of reds thinking he had left us in the best possible taste...But wait it seems the transfer had not gone through, and pep could still be a red ?? how tricky will this be when or if he runs out onto the lush city ground pitch against Barnsley FC after the international break!!. I myself am glad hes not left as his work rate and imaginative play can only benefit our team, even though he can leave us in a bit of a pickle at times...Hold the back page ...Just been confirmed at 1300 hrs today Adlene has left the building apparently the deal was concluded last night so hes officially a palace player..good luck i say, thanks for the memories but as its just been said on twitter, its about the badge on the front not the names on the back of the shirt..

On further investigation of the great twitter i find our chairman and Jim price have been deluged by the pleb element of the #NFFC time line demanding explanations as to WHY we failed yet again in another transfer window ????? 

Well my answer and many other level headed reds would like to add our thoughts (along with the official statement from Fawaz , which lets be honest he did not have to release but being the open and upfront bloke he seems to be all credit to him.....) 

What about the 9 or so quality additions made pre season , do they not count????? 

Looking forwards our chairman has promised to continue to look for players to come in on loan , maybe we will- maybe we wont get the Jordan Rhodes or charlie Austin type of goal poacher in Fryatt or some other striker but one thing i do know is that Billy Davies is a red and he hates derby............. and he will be trying his best! , In my opinion we have a great squad anyway and with a little luck we may go up automatically ..or even through the play offs (gulps) we just need to pull together and enjoy the ride , sorry for being pro NFFC but i am and i always will be COYR

Fawaz statement

Were top of the league...(was)

The blackpool reds were on the march again myself red jim scott and Darren lees with his preston supporting step son Nathan .The short journey for us was a bonus, setting off at 11 am up the M55 down the M6 and bingo .We arrived into the away fans car park paid the customery fiver and made the trek through a development of new retail outlets...this is usual for new out of the way faceless stadia...on arrival behind the away end two friendly uniformed gents tried to entice us in to the DW away fans lounge( above picture is outside away fans bar) . We kindly declined and made our way to the Red Robin pub a further five min walk,My previous visit 9 years ago had involved the red robin pub on that occasion we drew 2-2 and wigan were promoted that season ,funnily enough we were expected to fly it that year too, Makes you think !!   anyway...the beer started to flow and a steady stream of reds filled the pub dwarfing any home support that might have been presant. Very friendly atmosphere made for quite a confident feel about the days events , few coupons were showing wigan to score first forest to win 2 or 3  ..1i even managed to meet up with a few of the twitter reds to name a few parny,nick parker Ally (princess tricky) geordie dave and a few more .We made our way to turnstie P1 paid our £20 which must have helped to swell the large support (aprox 4,100)..i was sat (stood) in the left hand corner near the wigan drum contingent .Although we gave them some stick regarding empty seats i dont think it was a bad turnout for them either for a egg chasing bunch!...As per usual in the North west there was a large contingent of forest support which in my opinon failed to get any noise generated( apart from the goal)...maybe its the stadia im not sure but it was quite half hearted.
The game kicked off ...Forest started again with Halford up front which suprised me as cox was fit and derbyshire has proved his worth just recently. The game had only been going 7 mins when a free kick was awarded just outside the wigan box There was only one man for this free kick Mr andy reid..even before he took the kick we were adjusting for the goal celebrations ..and as promised he delivered, as the ball hit the net the red army went mental. But this happy feeling wasn't to last too long ,Wigan started to attack the forest goal and with the help of Mr pawson giving every decision to the home team it was a formality for him to point to the spot after Fortune went past Hobbs who subsequently made a rash challenge..but to be fair it was a right decision Maloney scored the pen although i and a few others did a little yes/no dance as we thought darlow had saved it..As we restarted forest through the impressive lansbury tried to get back the lead but the referee was having none of it..from our position fair challengers were being punished 2 bookings for lansbury and lichaj helped wigan pile pressure back on the forest goal and in the 34th min Darlow made a great save tipping a shot onto the bar but bad news for us was Gomez followed up and scored a easy goal...2-1 to the empty seats was the taunt ..i wouldnt say they deserved the lead but our failures up front would always be our undoing.

HT came and went and pep who was poor was replaced by halford ..we started brightly and to be fair had a good half but just couldn't find that inspiration .cohen was fouled in the box which incensed the red army "we always get shit refs" was the shout " ..cohen was causing a few problems but we huffed and puffed without causing wigan much trouble. when patterson and miller came on billy was really hoping for a piece of brilliance but like we all thought were is it going to come from ? Miller and Derbyshire along with a few other fringe players need to be offloaded and a real goalscorer like Rhodes brought in or dare i mention Billy sharp!!!! ( hides behind sofa) ....Wigan saw the game out to the final whistle and forest had lost the unbeaten run and our lofty position at the helm of the championship although we had a decent go in the second half i still think we were under par and maybe changing the whole team from the millwall game might be a bit to drastic, but dont get me wrong im fully behind billy and his decisions and we are not going to win every game......As we emptied the ground in our hordes and made our way back to cars and coaches there was a sense of the usual disappointment  when losing but unlike previous years there is a sense that this year will be different with king billy and our very own sheik ,Fawaz....i for one am putting this defeat down to a learning curve which hopefully we shall learn from , so onwards and upwards lets see what transfer deadline day brings.
...i wannna go home, i wanna go home wigans a !!...cheers from the part time Blackpool reds.
All comments welcome...
wigan v forest andy reid goal