Our Forest columnist Julie Pritchard, the creator of the classic nineties 'Brian' fanzine, is back to give her thoughts on the last month at the city ground. Strap yourself in!
There are topsy-turvy seasons, there are seasons that start or end in chaos, and then there’s this season. At times it’s felt like the last few seasons have been just a dream and we’ve woken up to find Fawaz is still in charge.
Ange Postecoglu, we hardly knew you. Do I feel sorry for him? A little. Normally new managers either come in with a clean slate in the summer, or in mid-season, when things have already gone seriously awry. Ange had no preseason and no transfer window, he replaced a very popular manager and his first 4 games were away, with next to no time on the training ground. We played some decent stuff in most of those games and deserved way more points than we got. Which is not to say that I mourned his early replacement, or enjoyed the shoe-gazing pressers that could have been live-streamed via LinkedIn, the calamitously early return of Murilo & Dominguez or watching the previously unimpeachable Milenkovic & Sels turn into panicked zombies. His position had become untenable and ultimately you have to credit to the Big Man not allowing things to fester further.
But what worries me is just how quickly, and how viciously, we got to that point of no return. His (and our) demise became a self-fulfilling prophesy. I’ve never seen the point of booing your own team. It will have had an impact on everyone at the club, including those players who adapted well to Angeball. We all need to vent at times but that’s what pubs and WhatsApp groups and social media are for (so long as comments on the latter are not too personal or pejorative), but for maybe 15% of the crowd to sing “Sacked in the morning” during only his 6th game in charge? These days Brian Clough – who won 2 of his first 15 games at Forest - would have been seen as a busted flush after his 44 days at Leeds and told to fuck off back to Derby. Perhaps he was right when he described us as the “fickle Nottingham public”.
It’s the modern world – let’s shout and scream and boo and blame instead of trying to do anything that might make things a little better, like, you know, encouraging the team. Midtjylland didn’t expect their team to win, but they backed them relentlessly and their reward was a game to tell their grandchildren about. It’s not so long ago that we were renowned for our vociferous support, how we’d create a wall of noise to lift the players (especially when missing chances galore).
You don’t even have to rate the players you’re rooting for. Back in March 1999, Forest played Wimbledon at Selhurst. Starting upfront for us was one Neil Shipperley, who’d been prolific elsewhere but couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo for us. For whatever reason, some wags in the crowd decided it was Shipperley Day and made every song about him. He took “We’ll walk a million miles for one of your goals, oh Ship-per-ley” to heart and scored his one and only Forest goal in a rare 3-1 win (we rarely won under Ron Atkinson or beat Wimbledon). I can no longer picture that goal but I do remember the confused little half wave he gave us, when requested to do so. It didn’t stop us being relegated (and Shipperley was later done for indecent exposure), but there really is power in positive thinking, even if you’re a bit snarky with it.
Maybe we could have inspired the team to pick up a couple more points under Ange, and maybe the lack of those points will cost us. I hope we’ll do better by Sean Dyche.
Dyche knows the club, the city, its nightlife, its curry houses - I bet he reads LeftLion too. It’s refreshing to see someone who truly relishes the opportunity to come to Nottingham Forest FC, who gives the impression that it’s truly his dream job.
There were ginger skies all over Nottingham on the morning of Dyche’s first game v Porto. An appointment that would have disappointed many in July or September now becomes a Get Out of Jail free card (with a little help from Stone and Woan). Dyche knows the club, the city, its nightlife, its curry houses - I bet he reads LeftLion too. It’s refreshing to see someone who truly relishes the opportunity to come to Nottingham Forest FC, who gives the impression that it’s truly his dream job.
We Clough-raised puritans may be loathe to admit it, but 'Dycheball' is not so different to 'Nunoball'. His teams are built on solid defence, but he’s pragmatic and will use what talent he’s got, and he loves a winger. He’ll kick some arses, but he’ll also listen to the players (who will have had plenty to say about the season so far). Set-pieces will be back on the training ground menu, at both ends of the pitch (I’m old enough to remember the days when a free-kick outside the box was as good a pen). We might even see a bit more of our £200m worth of new talent, once he’s had a little time to get to know them.
It feels like we’re ourselves again – even if that means Rip-Roaring Reds one week, felled timber the next. It won’t always be pretty - and we’ll probably always get dicked at Bournemouth - but we should win more than we lose (which would see us mid-table), and the Europa is an open book. Dyche certainly felt like a lucky manager v Porto. If only we could have Romanian officials giving us the penalties we think we deserve every week. I guess that must be what it’s like to support Liverpool.
Nuno gave us an awesome glimpse of what we could be v Brentford; Ange allowed us to dream in Seville. Dyche has already given us Porto, and the hope that all of last seaon’s progress has not already gone down the pan. There are some very winnable games in November: here’s to a bright ginger future.
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