Forest: Learn & Move On

For ninety-five and a half minutes on Saturday afternoon in DE24, Nottingham Forest Football Club played the perfect away performance against (like it or not) what is the Division’s form side with arguably the league’s best player.

We all know what happened after that. Joe Worrall is an idiot. He was stupid, naïve, he didn’t need to do it, had he got away with it we might have had a chuckle to ourselves, but no, the Referee who was brilliant on the day, correctly awarded a free kick for obstruction despite not a chance in the world Max Lowe would get within ten yards of Brice Samba before he kicked the ball back to the half way line to ensure the whistle was blown for full time. Forest 30 seconds from winning a game of football against their bitterest of East Midlands rivals… Perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be.

Brice Samba (like Worrall), has been brilliant all season, but on Saturday he was far from his usual best. He flapped at one high cross early on and got away with palming one low left wing centre out to the feet of a Forest player in the first half. Understandable nerves in a tense derby perhaps? But for one stop in the second half he had nothing to do, as the Reds back four took care of everything themselves, but in the 96^th minute post Worrall lashing out, he apprehensively tried to claim a ball from a deep Rooney free kick, which had he punched away, the Referee would have safely blew up to close the play. Forest were that close to a win and a ten-point swing over Derby County in the playoff race. It was really all-about ‘decision making’ and seeing out the game correctly.

I hope if anything, at that stage in future games Joe Worrall will never do what he did in that moment again. Brice Samba, knowing not a single Derby County player was outside the box for Rooney’s stoppage time free kick, will in future elect to punch instead. Making the right decision at the right time is what differentiates those who play in the Championship and those who play at the top, these good young players ‘hungry’ and ‘hurt’ will want to learn and ‘get it right’ if they want to get to the top, which they will, by learning from their mistakes and improving on their decision making in future games.

In truth those two mistakes highlighted were not the only ones on show in a match that Forest could have won three times over at least. The perfect first half performance, everyone of their back four excellent, everyone of the midfield three superb. As the game opened up in the second half the Reds frustrated the Rams and looked far more likely to score than their hosts as they often caught Derby on the counter-attack. Substitute Tiago Silva but for a post would have wrapped things up, Lewis Grabban should have at least scored one of the two chances he missed, the big one however was young Alex Mighten, destined to score his first goal for the club when put through in the final minute of normal time, a rabbit in headlights, he fluffed his lines and allowed Worrall to be in the position he was late on to end up costing the Reds all three points in the game.

But as we put what happened to bed at Pride Park we must focus instead on beating Fulham at the City Ground tomorrow. We expect Sabri Lamouchi to set up ‘same again’ and this time we’ll really see what Nottingham Forest Football Club are made of.

Because in Sabri we trust, and tactically, the ingredients are there to nullify any opposition in the division, proof against Derby on Saturday for all but 30 seconds of the game, we’ve done it against Leeds who top the table, we’ve done it against all the teams in the playoff zone at their own places, and if it comes to it over two legs if and when Forest cement their status in the playoffs, I would rather have a Sabri side than not, because Lamouchi, and his detailed proven approach, although not always favourable amongst fans, is one that is set up to get results, and one that has become as solid, reliable, and dependable than the players instructed to use it.

Let’s face it… If we are unhappy with a point at our high flying neighbours from down the Brian Clough Way, then it shows under Sabri how far we have come. Our players will always make mistakes but if we back them to bounce back then we’ll continue to get the best out of them and you never know, when we meet again, next time, which might not be so far away, we’ll be even better equipped to beat you.