Travel club..

Fancy going to spurs on tues night glyn ? ...not sure mate will have to stay at yours  if i do go !..It was a date . Me and dave were off to white heart lane on tues .18th January 1982 for a 5th round league cup game ,Ossie ardiles , jimmy greaves, chas n dave..glyn n dave are bunking school to see the mighty reds on your manor..  The number 33 rolled into bilsthorpe at about half ten , 2 halves to Nottingham please..We should have been having a hummanities lesson about now with Mr Williams wee billy as we called him . He wouldnt mind though as he was a forest season ticket holder. The bus used to take ages from bilsthorpe to Nottingham bus station ,once there it was a rather long walk to the city ground via the broadmarsh centre....quite a intimidating place at times especially in the 80s, probably been smartened up and policed properly now.
We arrived at the ground about half twelve the bus was leaving approx one thirty......Bartons buses...still makes me smile to this day,The luxury red and cream coaches with threadbare seats.  We had purchased our bus ticket at the ticket office which was at the back of the main stand , The game itself was pay at the gate think it cost a four quid to get in &the travel was a fiver rather different now i fear ?...Mick oram (think he took over running forest buses ) steve from leicester, Doughnut (never knew his name,he was the loudest forest fan i ever heard bit plump but very likeable...youve probably seen him) some lads from newark pike brothers if my memory is intact,  A Right mixture, it was all led by Mr Mel Cox the chain smoking organiser..in a suit ,always reminded me of the guy in dads army who could get you anything you wanted

.....On arrival at watford gap it was time for the usual raping of the shop by hordes of reds ,some stuff was really expensive ...some stuff was free !!!!!!...back on the bus ,along the M1 right to the end turn right at the roundabout up the north circular and there you had it ..we was at the ground , pitch black walking at the side of some multi story towerblock with some very large and unpleasant geezers looking down...Gulp....the away end was cordened off with police outside so away fans could be searched and allowed to enter without being assaulted...we kept our heads down ,scarf under wraps and quiet as mice...once into the area sectioned off that was it "FOREST...FOREST..FOREST" LOL..we was so brave, as the spurs fans passed offering us their best wishes 'you northern wa......rs' etc Dave was alot bigger than me more of a adult in appearance he even had a forest tattoo.... ,i was a bit ..well..small ....mind i had a tattoo with forest on some years later didnt half make me look harder ...(not) so

Into the ground to the front pushing and swaying ,forest always took a few to london ,in fact we are prob one of the best away followings around for size of the club ..The view at spurs was similer to Everton in my opinion, your eyes were level with the players calfs like you was in a ditch

"Ossie Ardiles scored a miss hit shot which eventually won the game 1-0..Peter Shilton saved a penalty from Glenn Hoddle which had already been re taken twice for encrouching , This game was also the official opening of the new west stand.crowd was 31,192

So we lost but "we dont care were forest fans doo dah doo dah ..
Exiting white heart lane was always a exercise need with military precision if you got on the outer edge of the police escort you would almost certainly end up with a slap or a bit of spit for your hair stylist to mould your mullet. As we were led to our coaches the local met police liked to scare us younger lads with stories of how we would be lucky to make it alive to the coach ...i actually believed him  in fact a few years later on 6th oct 1985 pc Kieth Blakelock was tragically murdered in the same area ..Broadwater farm....
The journey home was a little subdued due to the loss but dave was happy cos i bet they would score the penalty that peter shilton saved ....so i was a fiver down ,also...we stopped at watford gap again but on the north bound side..always prefered this side in later years because if you walked up a bit of a hill you ended up in a pub ,now this pubs beer was like horse piss and probably still is ,if its still open ...back on the coach after 2 pints of HP and off to notts....Radclffe power station,not long now....As we entered the great city of Nottingham i asked Dave how he thought we might get home? Not a clue he replied , Not  a good sign at 1.30am in the morning twenty odd miles from home . The bus unloaded at the city ground. we asked  the driver if he was going anywhere near Bilsthorpe...how naive was we ."Arnold roundbout mate, i can drop you there not supposed to like but i will "? We jumped off at the roundabout and decided as we had no money (always a sober moment) to walk the approx 15 miles..after about 2 miles and the dissapearance of street lights we did the thumb out thing to every car that passed, "hes stopping Glyn" we both ran to the car as fast as we could prob the quickest 200 metres this country has seen , yes he drove off as we got to the car ...the bastard...about  3:30/ 4am on the darkest part of the A614  we were over three quarters of the way home when out of this bush someone asks "you got any fags" ...Oh my god  we nearly died of fright, it was a tramp having a kip in a bush ..never laughed so much !!! Finally we got to daves house about 5ish sore feet thirsty, hungry and very tired ....just think school in couple of hours, dont think i got any sleep that morning due to the friggin gerbil on his wheel in daves front room drove me round the bend ! "Get up Glyn" school time. Bus comes at 8..................wouldnt change a thing, another great forest memory..thanks for reading youuuuuu reeeeeeeeds

Hot Potato

So its nearly a week since the enigma that is William Macintosh Davies was relieved of his position at Nottingham Forest, to me it seems like the few days has been weeks. The negativity that was directed at our club whilst davies was in charge was poison as he had excluded local and national media from any interaction at the city ground, Whilst the sacking of the scotsman was supposed to put things right it seems to have made us even more of a media circus.
Manager after manager turn us down for one reason or another with one major issue raising its head, that issue seems to be the interference of our owner Mr Fawaz al Hasawi, as much as it pains me to say it there must be some credibility to all these rumours?  Neil Warnock was interviewed very quickly for the position and was prematurely hailed as the new manager in some quarters of the media and at the last minute decided the job was not for him as the conditions were not right in other words fawaz wanted some input on team selection, well this is what mr Warnock was implying. True or not it was quite worrying to some but like Warnock himself stated " if you have invested so much money in a club are you not allowed a opinion " .
Even club legend Stuart Pearce refused to get back to his spiritual heaven were he knows his presence would be worshipped stating personal reasons for his refusal. Then we are quickly informed that the FIA have ruled out Oneil and Keane due to their contractual obligations to the Republic of Ireland also ex Cardiff manager Malky Mackay distances himself from the now Hot Potato job on trentside.
Before any Garibaldi supporter panics a sense of realism should be reached here, yes warnock has a good record but to be fair he was a quick fix until the end of the season but how many Leeds United supporters tweeted their admiration for him?
Then lets look at psycho, this Forest icon knows if he fails at forest then it could ruin his immmortality on trentside so he's played the safe card and opted to bottle it in my opinion. Not a bad thing neither has his managerial cv is not exactly overwhelming is it?
Keane and Oneill ....well its obvious they were never a option. Mackay he did well with Cardiff for one season with someone elses team and is embroiled in a legal case for a fat pay off due to his rather ugly sacking.
Now lets look at the remaining candidates who may want this fantastic opportunity to become a hero in eight games and get to manage a club through the lottery of the play offs and into the magical land of the Premier league. ....
Gianfranco Zola, Glenn Hoddle, Steve Clarke these 3 seem to be on the radar as far as the bookies are concerned. Well to be fair any to them would be ok in my eyes especially clarke (I would love Nigel Clough to come home though). One thing is for sure any new gaffer will have to work closely with Fawaz but that,s something he will have to put up with. At the end of the day he's invested millions so who are we to tell him he can't advise here and there? So lets look positive and realise maybe the previous candidates were not exactly fit for purpose........think about it, you know it makes sense.

Just another day at NFFC

As another day starts at Nottingham Forest a certain Kuwaiti owner of this once great European giant must be scratching his head,
Fawaz Al Hasawi who took over the Trent side team in July 2012 has yet again got to decide which man will be chosen for the vacant managers job which  Billy Davies left after his contract was terminated on Monday 24th march , A lot is being said as to why Billy was sacked but it must have been the way in which the fiery Scot conducted himself not only to the press but to the fans of this very proud club. After what can only be described as a surrender to arch rivals  Derby county in the 5-0 thrashing last Saturday , Billy failed to muster even a salute to the 2700 poor souls who were taunted virtually from the start of the game in a crowd of over 33,000, He also kept to his bizarre No Comment statement and failed to try to build on the once great relationship he had with the red army, The madness of king Billy had finally snapped the camels back ( no pun intended) . I myself and many more rejoiced at the homecoming of our spiritual son who in rather acrimonious circumstances had his 1st stint at forest cut short , a little to short for most and his  'unfinished business' was going to be finished ...Little did we know that just a year later it would all end in tears yet again. The saddening thing for me is football results were not the main reason for his demise as his passion and commitment were not to be faulted, He could have been forgiven for our horrendous injury toll which helped with our dropping out of the play off positions ,but you cannot forgive a man who thinks hes bigger than the club!
So poor old fawaz once again tries to please everyone by rushing into the out of work managers pool , with Neil warnock his first choice,  hey presto we have a new caretaker manager and a defender is signed on loan from Leeds utd ...Great ,so colin is the man for us ,what with severel promotions ?

...cut cut cut cut ...
Only in true forest George boyd style does it go pete tong, and Neil recoils at the fact Fawaz would like his 2 expensive Algerian signings to play a bigger role.I myself think this is a reasonable request as he did spend over 2.5 million on them, but who am i to question NW, So its back to square one, warnocks a distant memory and the defender from leeds is quickly diverted to Bolton Wanderers.

Now it looks like Gary Brazil is to continue as interim manager starting with tonights game (tues) with Charlton Athletic at the city ground. If it was my decision and not our illustrious Fawaz Al Hasawi choosing our new manager then it would be a no brainer and a ex FOREST man would be taking the reigns ..ie O'neal, clough , Pearce even, not a mercenary like warnock or Redknapp etc. Whoever gets it, its gonna be fun as this rollercoaster just aint stopping. before i go though i would like to say thanks to Billy Davies, Its such a shame it didnt work out and I will remember you fondly unlike messers platt and megson.

The big one

As I write this there are 2 days 5 hours and 10 minutes until Derby county & Nottingham Forest once again try to outfox one another at the newly named Ipro stadium , I know this is for a fact as I have made a link to a countdown clock in honor of the game on twitter , Am I excited , well you bet I am . Although I will hit my 49th birthday in October this fixture brings out the youth in me , its like waiting for santa to arrive for a 10 year old , All over the country thanks to our friends at sky ,most Forest & Derby supporters will get to see this eagerly awaited clash .The thing is though will this game live up to its billing on the field or will the referee yet again cause the game to be lopsided and give either the rams or reds a helping hand, Although our rivals will always throw a cog in that theory from the '10 men game' something mr mcClaren will remember very well. Whatever happens on Saturday is going to be pivitol to the trickies season more so than the sheep shag army , with Brighton  and Reading finding form Forest could at 5pm find they no longer occupy a play off position. So a draw at least for the reds is paramount.
With wee Billy Davies playing his joker and knowing full well his ban might even get extended due to contesting the FAs decicion , He will be leading from the bench which might just be the spurt forest need to get out of this rut of dropping points, add to the idea he just might throw a suprise on the field with the return maybe of one of our missing in action players!! Our great owner Fawaz is also trying to muster some good news by announcing the fantastic news of patto and lacelles signing new deals and the fans well they are doing what we do best ....Fretting!! 
The forest messageboards are full of doom and gloom , twitter is also awash with the white flag flying high above the city ground , I myself have a head that says a derby win ,my heart thumps with a famous victory and a fiver that says a draw,
One thing I do know is whatever the score this fixture is special so lets just enjoy it ......2 days 4hours 30 mins to go ....gulp
http://t.co/MjRhsUuP4S

Four from six

As the 2013 /14 championship season starts to jockey teams into position for the final push to the golden finish line for the exclusive right to wallow in the gold of televisions millions , Nottingham Forest, who for most of the season have been there or thereabouts are doing the complete opposite and looking to fall at the final hurdle and maybe allow other teams such as wigan to push them aside ? For me I cannot see Leicester City failing for automatic promotion and if QPR dont regain their early season form then the impressive Burnley will probably fill the second spot ! . This leaves four teams to battle out over two legs for the right to play at the magnificent Wembley stadium for footballs apparently richest one game prize ?
As stated Queens Park Rangers will definitely be one of the four  it would be amazing if Harrys team dont make it and will try to push the clarets all the way for 2nd  but the pressure of their debt mountain will in my opinion put them in a very precarious state of panic and in a play off situation they will be similar to  Forests  predicament the year Blackpool spanked us at the city ground, they would be expected to win it...
Derby county , well for me steve mcClaren has done a marvellous job for our arch enemys , Hes taken Nigel cloughs hard working bunch and made them grind out some great results , Its hard for me to say this as I dislike their manager nearly as much as I dislike Derby county but credit where credit is due and in my opinion Derby will definitely be in one of the four coveted spots.
Reading have still got burnley , leicester, wigan and derby to play and are similar to forest at the moment this is one team that could drop out , especially as they are also trying to find a new majority owner now their Russian oil barron has given up the ghost !
Wigan Athletic are on a march for the premier league and if I was a betting man then a crisp £20 would be on them now to win at Wembley,  the only thing that could derail this steam train is  fatigue , remember wigan have played quite a few more games due to the europa league which did them no favours also carrying on their fa cup good fortune by beating Manchester City last sunday has given them the hard task of a semi final date at wembley with Arsene wengers gunners , this must take its toll somehow .
Brighton and Hove Albion are another club with patchy form they have Qpr , Leicester & a final crunch day game with the garibaldi reds in may, all mixed in with some mid table teams , hopefully the five points deficit of forest will prove to much although they must be pleased to be still in the mix after the unsavoury way gus poyet left at the beginning of the season
Ipswich , Blackburn & Watford would have to really spring some suprise to enter the play off push .
Nottingham Forest are as ive said shooting themselves in the foot at this most crucial of times a very unlucky streak of injuries mixed with some strange performances against clubs they should have beaten even with reserve players now the Manager has been banned for 5 games.Middlesbrough away is our next game our owner Fawaz al Hasawi has layed on free buses for the loyal reds who have followed up and down the country all season .this is more important than the Derby , Qpr or Brighton  games as a defeat would lower morale even more so a draw would please me and allow us to focus on Doncaster next Saturday,  a game we should and must win to give us confidence for our sky encounter with the Rams.
The clock is ticking and Billy Davies needs to steady the ship somehow , hopefully he will and on the 24th may NFFC will play whoever in the final and take us up . Its not impossible but at the moment unlikely,  whatever happens I will still go next season championship or premier league not sure Billy will be though ?? My final positions for may below, whats yours ????
Leicester City
Burnley
Qpr
Derby County
Wigan Athletic
Nottingham Forest
Reading
Brighton and Hove Albion
24th may 2014 play off final  Nottingham Forest v Derby County...? Its written in the stars (Gulp)

Its Football ...but not as I know it.

Saturday 28th sept 2013 at the City Ground Nottingham , Forest v Derby county , it was a lovely day the sun was out as summer kept its hat on as you are aware this is the biggest fixture of the season and anticipated on both sides of the A5-2 , I managed to get a seat in the lower Bridgeford end as derbys allocation had been halved to allow more reds into the ground and generate a better atmosphere behind the goal, ( something I disagree with and still think derby and a handful of other well supported clubs should get 4k + but thats for another time.) As we file into the ground like lemmings taking up the prearranged plot given to us next to ladies , young children , old men etc we are told "please stay seated " please dont swear " anything remotely abusive gets you stern ejection from the lovely rows of seats , Forest won this game with a Jack Hobbs goal and don't get me wrong I had a great day but its got me looking back at how we used to enjoy our time inside the ground !!
Now I seem to enjoy the build up to a game and pre match entertainment more than the sterile offerings we sit through each time we enter a stadium these days , the whole in play atmosphere seems to have done one , just think of any game you go to now ..especially away from home where we take a good following , say 3k ..its usually dead as a dodo before we are 20 mins into a game if your reading this and support NFFC think back to sheff wed , Bolton ,Blackpool . I was asking myself if I could take football as a whole back to 1980 would I do it .........Bloody too right I would , maybe id remove the violence as it did get daft at times , but the feel as a whole was 100% better than 2014.I would love for all these young uns today to experience what we did inside the shed ends of most grounds , tell you for one thing if you had your iphone out it would be on the floor in seconds ? , no time for checking sky sports when your doing 57 mph into a barrier! (Ouch) last time ive felt to a old style football end was when forest got promotion at Peterborough when stan the man collymore and pearcy sent us wild in 93/94 , what a feeling and what a day if you was there you know what I mean.

March 1981 fa cup game at the city ground Nottingham,  versus Ipswich Town. As I got up the steps at the back of the old trent end the only thing in front of me was a row of backs and a wall of noise , above these people was darkness due to the low stand corrugated roof which stretched all the way down past the front of the stand , How the hell do I get in this lot was the thought in my 16 year old head ? Didnt matter as many others were now behind me and  now I was pushing and shoving all kinds of men and lads with the help of the lads pushing me. All of a sudden there was a surge I and the whole middle section went into a kind of forwards rush like a wave gaining momentum , from being at the back and having no view of anything I was now rushing forwards and sidewards towards the front of the stand, im sure my feet were off the ground ? The only thing that occupies your mind at this moment is the fact that a barrier is probably going to hit your chest at any moment ! As you get to the front you look back and see you have travelled many terrace steps and the unfortunate few are being dragged up as they unluckily fell, but most help and drag them to their feet. For the rest of the afternoon we are swaying from left to right up and down and struggling to stay upright . 6 goals went in that day , in a 3-3 draw , when I finally got out and made my way home,(with Dave Hallam the guy who kindly introduced me the the reds of Nottingham Forest  ) I was physically drained from the workout .
Why did I choose this game ? Probably as this was one of my first times in the trent end on my own. But this was to become a regular experience that made being a football supporter all so exciting , on other occasions we would be frowing sideways and forwards and some luney from another club would shout up !!  This would amazingly open up a pocket in the packed crowd with the lone gladiator stood waiting for battle to commence , one such memory was West Ham United , the lone hammer stood fists clenched ....when the gap closed and the crowd ate him and spat him out to the bobbys and St Johns ambulance brigade at the front  , he may have had a bloody nose but as he was led to the other Irons fans they gave him a reception fit for a returning king "you'll never take the trent end "was the roar. You could replay this scenario to any derby,Leicester or a fan of any other club for that matter and i have no doubt in my mind it brings up some similar experience.
Some of you may say this was barbaric times and not for returning to and maybe they are correct ? Who knows? Tell you one thing it didnt cost £35 ..whats that all about ? If we get to the premier league add another fiver or more also and add a few corporate guests to help with the singing !!!
I realise it will never go back but I do belive one day when everyone is fed up of football on sky and they have used and abused and discarded it back to where it belongs ..., young uns may well get the chance once again to taste sick in their mouth from the barrier crush....
,anyway  thanks for your company hope it stirred a few thoughts or memory's. Any comments are appreciated.