Forest kicked-off the new season with a comfortable 2:0 win against newly relegated Sunderland in front of the Sky cameras. This was Sunderland's 16th successive league defeat!
Forest goals both came in the first-half through Marlon Harewood (on 18 minutes) and a Matthieu Louis-Jean Header (on 40 minutes). Both goals were laid on by Andy Reid.
Once Forest had scored their goals, the Sunderland forwards never looked confident enough to force a come back, having earlier missed some very easy chances. However they almost took an earlye lead when a Kyle effort hit the Forest post.
Despite temperatures in excess of 30 degrees the match was played at a blistering pace. Above we see David Johnson off on a run towards the Sunderland box in the second-half.
This was as good as it got for the Reds as they were thrashed 3:0 at Reading. Here we see Darren Ward saving a Shorey penalty on the half-hour to keep the scores level. This penalty save followed on the back of the 3 he made in the mid-week League Cup match at Port Vale!
Forest totally dominated the first 25 minutes but failed to make the break through before the second-half collapse! After the break Forest played poorly as Reading out played them. It could have been a lot worse!
A flat out Danny Sonner says it all. He had just headed wide of a gaping Rams' goal from point-blank range. This was one of close-up three sitters that the Reds missed in the second-half as they pressed for a winner. Marlon Harewood blasted over shortly afterwards from inside the six yards box and a Michael Dawson header was miraculously saved by a fully stretched Derby keeper Andy Oakes, when perhaps Dawson could have done better.
This was a typical local derby match which had it all and the Rams might even have grabbed a win for themselves, having first taken the lead through a Junior goal on 24 minutes before Forest's Andy Reid's spectacular angled lob over the Derby keeper levelled the scores 2 minutes later. The Rams also hit Forest's cross bar early three minutes into the second-half from a Svensson shot which was followed up by a header from Costa which Darren Ward amazingly managed to save at full stretch. And they hit the bar again shortly before the end of the match just after Reds' defender John Thompson left the field on 87 minutes , having been given a straight red card for an off-the-ball incident with Derby's Mathias Svensson.
And poor old Eoin Jess. He came on as a second-half substitute only to be withdrawn after Thompson's sending-off to allow to Gregor Robertson to come on to shore up the Reds defence for the last few tense moments as the Reds hung on for a 1:1 draw in a game that they ought to have won at a canter!
A very disappointing day for the 3,000 Reds fans that boosted Stoke's crowd to a dismall 13,755 for this Midlands derby.
Despite having a hat full of chances Forest went two goals behind before half-time with Thomas scoring the Stoke opener on 7 minutes, followed up by former Sheffield United striker Asaba on 31 minutes.
Forest played some good passing football and dominated much of the possession. Unfortunately they were unable to put together a strike that could beat City's former Premiership goal keeper Ed De Goey. Forest's only consolation came when Gareth Williams' pulled one back in the 90th minute... which proved to be too little, too late!
The photograph above sums up how Forest were unable to put things together inside the Stoke penalty area, with Reds' on-loan midfielder Michael Stewart spread flat out in the middle of things as yet another Forest cross goes astray.
This game came on the back of successive wins against Crewe (home ) and last season's play-off rivals Sheffield United (away). With third bottom Derby County drawing away at West Ham in their lunch time encounter, Forest faced mid-table Stoke City with an excellent opportunity to continue their charge away from the relegation places and almost certainly guarentee their safety.
Unfortunately Stoke City came to the City Ground with other ideas and made a real game of it. In a tense nil:nil draw, which was by no means a dirty game, Stoke provided strong physical opposition that made it difficult for the Reds to settle on the ball in midfield and get it through to the forwards. Indeed Stoke had plenty of chances to score a winner themselves.
Above we see a menacing first half cross from Stoke, with Forest's Michael Dawson underneath the ball as loan keeper Paul Gerrard looks on in anticipation of a possible strike on goal.
Here we see Andy Impey (on loan from Leicester) charging down the wing to set up a second-half Forest attack. Tight defending and strong midfield play on Stoke's part limited Forest's chances of scoring a much needed winner. The Reds were cheered on by a massive crowd of 28,758 despite their lowly league position!
In the picture above Andy Reid celebrates after scoring Forest's first goal of the afternoon.
This game promised a lot with Milwall already through to the FA Cup Final and pushing for a place in the Play-offs, while Forest sought vital points to secure safety from relegation. Unfortunately the first-half of the match didn't live up to expectation, being boring and lifeless. But the second-half proved to be totally the opposite. Forest found themselves a goal down within 50 seconds of the restart after David Livermore scored for the Lions.
This was just what the game needed. The Milwall goal startled Forest into action and proved to be just the start of an incident and action packed 45 minutes of football.
Reid's equaliser came from a stunning long range drive after 55minutes.
Ten minutes after the Forest equaliser the match officials had to break-up a 20 man brawl when an irate Wes Morgan retaliated after being pushed over by Milwall's Daniele Dichio.
Once order had been restored both players were sent off.
If the Referee thought that these dismissals would calm things down he was much mistaken. With Lion's player-boss Dennis Wise urging his men on, they were always going to be physical and aggressive, testing the patience and temperament of the Red's players throughout the match. Weak, and arguably poor, refereeing did not help to calm things down!
Here we see David Johnson in position and about to receive the ball to score Forest's second goal in the 70th minute. This put Forest ahead and seemingly on course for victory. It was Johno's first for the club since his return after breaking his leg in the autumn. Sadly it didn't prove to be the winner. Eoin Jess failed to take a clear-cut chance to putthe Reds 3:1 ahead and give Forest 3 vital points. The Reds were left to rue his miss when Lion's substitute Nick Chadwick equalised for Milwall in the 85th minute.
Forest had to be content with a 2:2 draw which took their season's tally to 50 points. Whilst still not certain to avoid the relegation drop, results elsewhere made escape seem much more likely.
Finally... earlier this week, Milwall complained to the FA, and anyone else who would listen, about their allocation of FA Cup Final tickets... well with just 670 Lions fans making the trip to the City Ground when they are trying to seal a place in the promotion Play-Offs, do they really have a case? With the Lions on such an historic run and no one bothering to follow them maybe they have a point when they sing "no one likes us!"
Marlon King shields the ball by the Ipswich corner flag in the 94th minute of a magnificent Forest performance in weather conditions better than those reported on the Costa Del Sol.
Two goals from David Johnson, backed up by brilliant defending, secured the 2:1 win that ensured Forest's survival in Divison One.
Forest dominated much of the first-half with Johnson giving them the lead with a simple tap in after a terrific run by Marlon King in the 12th minute. Unbelievably the scores were level at half-time after Ipswich's Bowditch equalised with a thundering shot, after 34 minutes, that left Paul Gerrard helpless in the Forest goal
On 55 minutes Eoin Jess put in a brilliant cross from the right which David Johnson drilled in with an amazing diving header against his former club. Despite continuous pressure from Play-Off chasing Ipswich the Red's managed to hold on to their lead for the last half hour through some excellent defending - Wes Morgan was outstanding - and a measure of luck - with Naylor rattling the Forest post!
Forest fans greeted the final-whistle with relief, joy and celebrations. The last 20 minutes plus the additional 4 minutes for stoppages seemed to last for an eternity! Then came the news that Walsall had lost, meaning that Forest had avoided relegation from Division One...
... and Derby had lost while Notts County had been relegated to Divison Three!
Forest ended the season with two more victories - in the final home match against Wigan and then away to already promoted West Bromwich Albion!
After reaching the Play-Offs last season and making a bright start to this campaign, the Red's shocked their fans by pressing the self-destruct button during the winter months!
Until Paul Hart was sacked and replaced by Joe Kinnear's as manager, Forest looked doomed to relegation to Divison Two. In the end we had to be more than content with avoiding relegation. But perhaps there is more than a glimmer of hope for another run at promotion to the Premiership next season after the Red's ended the campaign with an eight match unbeaten run!
After staring relegation in the face Forest's late run saw them finish the season in 14th position (P46,W15,D15,L16,F61,A58,GD+3,Pts60).
There
will be regular updates of bugcafe's travels throughout the next
unmissable Reds' campaign to try get back into the premiership during the 2004/05 Season.
