It was around 1.45 on Saturday afternoon when it happened, around the 60th minute of the Forest V Manchester City game to be precise. Barely visible, but if you squinted and focused, you may have seen a tiny fluff of smoke gently swirled up from the pitch and waft up into the air.
It was the aura of invincibility that had clung to Manchester City for so long. There it went. There goes the fear.
Weirdly, the most surprising aspect of beating City was that it wasn’t actually that surprising. That’s not meant in a puffing out of the chest in a hubristic way; but more that as the game wore on, it turned into one of those movies we’ve seen before.
Anyone who saw Forest nullify Arsenal a week or so ago will have recognised the pattern of his game from a very early stage. There used to be an inevitability about Manchester City. They’d rock up, pass the ball into oblivion, create a few chances, miss them, but inevitably score as the opposition simply could not maintain concentration for the full course of the game. It’s all look so easy. So unstoppable. So inevitable.
Yet if anything was inevitable about this game, it was that City would huff, puff, and scuff some chances high and wide, before getting a tad distracted and start pondering the mystery – or indeed, the futility – of life, or at least, the futility of trying to dribble past Murillo, Ola Aina or Neco Williams. No point. Stay at home. Make a lot of tea. Tend the garden. Have a custard cream. Take satisfaction in the small things. Forget about the big stuff. Leave it to others.
And while we noted – and appreciated – City’s intricate interplay and wot-not, we grew less fearful of Erling Haaland latching onto a through ball, or Kevin De Bruyne cracking one in from long range, and grew more confident we’d fashion a chance or two. We’d seen the Arsenal movie a few weeks ago.
As the second half played out, Chris Wood’s chest became Velcro again. With every passing minute, the pendulum swung further in our favour. No plot twists. No big reveal. But instead, a climax we’ve come to know and love. With time ticking down and the opposition frustrated, we started creating chances as the wingers gleefully galloped into space behind the full backs.
Remember all that mid-noughties discourse about David Beckham playing centrally for England and spraying passes around like a quarterback? It didn’t quite work out. It all seemed a bit silly. It turns out that in order for such a system to work, England simply had the wrong man – only Morgan Gibbs-White could do such a thing. Baby footballs dream of being struck as sweetly as he did for ‘that’ pass.
There were noises on Saturday. The thud of shock when Calllum Hudson-Odoi’s shot came back off the post, followed by a gasp of surprise that the ball wasn’t in the net. The audible murmur of appreciation of ‘that’ pass out to Hudson-Odoi for what would be the goal. The roar when the ball somehow ended up in the net.
If the Bridgford End has maybe seen the lion’s share of spectacular goals down the years, the Trent End has seen the more significant goals. This was emphatically one of them. It was a physical manifestation of Kevin Keegan’s infamous rant about how his Newcastle team were still here and still fighting and should not be written off.
Thirty years ago to the day, Forest beat Everton after disappointing results against Newcastle and Arsenal. They went on to win eight of the remaining ten games, drawing the other two and claiming a place in Europe thanks to a third-place finish. And all this with a team who didn’t seem to get on, with Stan Collymore bristling when - if - a team mate bothered to congratulate him after a goal.
But this team…this team….
Just simply, this team.
One of my books, ‘The History Boys: Thirty Iconic Forest Goals’, has been reprinted in paperback, with a lovely review quote on the front cover. Click here if you fancy buying a copy.
I have almost completed the 92. Here are some observations from visiting lots of football grounds over the years.
If you don’t know me, I am the author of ‘Reds and Rams: The History of the East Midlands Derby’ and ‘The History Boys: Thirty Iconic Forest Goals’ (both available in the Forest club shop). I have written pieces for Mundial magazine, Football Weekends magazine, edited two award-nominated fanzines and was a columnist in the Nottingham Forest programme for eight years.
If you do know me, I’m truly sorry.
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