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<\/p>\nLeague tables can – and do – play havoc with the imagination. Dreams get ignited and nightmares flare up. Only two games into the Premiership season and the media would have us jostling for our team as \u2018top four\u2019 contenders or \u2018relegation material\u2019. And it\u2019s still August, so still time for sunshine-lazy days and wallowing in fresh memories of summer holidays!<\/p>\n
Forest, with a start of perfect symmetry, (and, many would say, predictability) have lost and won by the same margin to position themselves mid-table. Sheffield United, city of steel in decades past, tested the metal of the Reds with a strong second-half comeback on Saturday but \u2018The Blades\u2019 were finally put to the sword with Chris Wood\u2019s late headed winner. Time for the City Ground to erupt. One United team defeated, now for the next.<\/p>\n
That would be Manchester United, licking their wounds from a weekend loss at Spurs. It\u2019s been a stuttering start for the \u2018Busby Babes\u2019 (there\u2019s a blast from the past, referring to the young team managed by Matt Busby so tragically decimated in the Munich air disaster of 1958) and Forest might fancy their chances of snatching at least a point from Old Trafford. But strange things can happen at that ground. Ask Wolves\u2019 fans.<\/p>\n
Trailing 0-1 last week, yet more than matching the home team for possession and shots recorded, there came an incident when Wolves must have thought their time – and luck – had come. New United keeper, Onana, made a challenge that was dubious, to say the least, but no penalty was given. Which would have been an end to the story had it not been for an intervention a couple of days later by Howard Webb, who is the chief refereeing officer. He apologised for the decision on match-day and suspended the referee and VAR officials for one game.<\/p>\n
Webb is keen to make the decisions taken in a match more transparent. Whether punishing officials for one game makes any difference remains to be seen but at least he\u2019s on the case. What\u2019s the point of VAR technology if it\u2019s not going to encourage a referee to at least review a contentious incident? He might also like to take into consideration the issue of time: wasted and added.<\/p>\n
During the Alex Ferguson era, time took on a fantasy force in its own right, nicknamed \u2018Fergie time\u2019. Extra minutes clocked-up when the chips were down for United became a feature of games on home territory. Can I prove it? I doubt it. Time \u2018added on\u2019 was such an opaque feature of matches back then. Who knew how much time had been added for what stoppages? I remember, even as an amateur player, decades ago, being ignored if I asked a ref how much time was remaining in a game or told, \u2018Long enough\u2019. It was treated like secret information.<\/p>\n
At least we now have electronic boards indicating how much additional time is to be played but there\u2019s more to be done. Fans – never mind the players – have a right to know what\u2019s going on and how time is being managed. Go to a rugby or basketball game and you\u2019ll see what I mean. We see the clock start and we see it stop when necessary and we see how much time is left to the point where we can count down the minutes and seconds.<\/p>\n
All of this is, of course, off-the-field-business and the players won\u2019t be distracted by behind-the-scenes issues. That said, you\u2019d have to be a player with cloth ears not to be aware of what\u2019s rumbling around in the red half of Manchester. The club is still in protracted talks with goodness knows who about buy-outs and take-overs and they have only just clarified the very serious matter pertaining to Mason Greenwood after months of deliberation. Following a collapsed case against the player, accused of numerous sex offences, his career was put on hold. The public, the fans, and the man himself, should not have been held in suspense for so long. Correctly, Manchester United now accept that the player\u2019s future cannot be with the club but it\u2019s been an open moral wound and has done little to credit the game with any integrity.<\/p>\n
Forest are well away from all of these back-page stories and will be preparing for Saturday\u2019s match. Brighton are top of the league, Brentford are riding high, and Forest are one place above Manchester United. That\u2019s enough material for my fantasy football imagination to take hold. Revenge is in the air. The Reds lost four times to United last season and are still smarting (as we all are) from that statistic. The time is ripe for a Forest victory. They know they have to perform more successfully on the road if they are to improve on last season\u2019s achievements. What better way to make a statement of intent than to secure three points at Old Trafford in however many minutes it takes?<\/p>\n
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