We’ve seen this movie before.
From the start it seemed clear the team were running on fumes. Actually, we all were. The trip to Brighton took it out of all of us, and Tuesday came around extraordinarily quickly. Too soon, one feared.
But at the same time, there was a sense of the team not waiting around for another fixture when they might be fitter, happier, more productive and more comfortable to get three more points on the board and secure a third place. This was now. Go all out to get the points in the bag now and worry about it later. I’ll sleep when I’m dead mentality. In the meantime, let’s party till we drop.
Such an approach paid off, that of ‘get a goal, get a goal early, it doesn’t matter how, just get one and we’ll worry about what to do after that’. In fact, we’ll not worry. We’ll just do that thing we do.
So as Anthony Elanga galloped free along the Savannah of NG2, we all screamed in unison, ‘Pass it!! Pass it!! Give it to Morgan! Give it to him noooowwww! Oh. Yeah, that works too.’
Another iconic and frankly breathtaking goal for the Bridgford End.
From then on it was backs to the wall Alamo thou shalt not pass type stuff. Except, it wasn’t really. It was more defend in a disciplined way, keep your shape, don’t lose concentration, funnel opposition attacks into the places you want them to go and when there is a chance to spring an attack, run run run. Sure there were some hairy moments, but there was rarely a sense of an equaliser coming or being on the cards. Or maybe it’s just that our faith in the team to do what they do has galvanised to epic proportions of trust.
In games like this, there are moments which are instructive. One too many passes from United went straight out of play. When a United shot sailed over, heads went into United hands both on and off the pitch a few too many times. In the second half, it was Forest who came out stronger. And when the ghost of Greg Halford lumbered on to make a mess of himself up front for the closing stages, it was confirmation that the points would be won.
When one worries about the lack of cover Forest have up front with just an ageing Chris Wood and a perennially unfit Taiwo Awoniyi as striking options, one must temper those worries with the thought of Harry Maguire being sent on to put himself about a bit up front.
Books will one day be written about Ryan Yates (yes, that is very much a come and get me plea) and when they are, a chapter should be dedicated to how he mentally and physically barged the world class midfield duo of Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes off the park. Literally, off the park. Sure there was the usual Ryan Yates niggly fall down get up type of stuff. But that was just one element of it. Just like in that hymn you used to pretend to sing along to, when Fernandes needed a neighbour, Yates was there, he was there. Wherever Fernandes travelled, Yates was there, Yates was there. When Fernandes tried to slot an exquisite through ball or get away from him, Yates was there. Indeed, when Alexandro Garnacho tried to cut inside and bear down on goal, Yates was emphatically there. And then some.
We’ve definitely seen this movie before. If the Manchester City game was the Alfred Hitchcock version of Psycho, this was the Gus Van Sant version, a frame-by-frame remake in 1998. Same plot. Same score line. Same opposition city. But just not quite as fluent as the original. A little lacking in coherence. Less deftly executed. A bit messy. But job very much done.
Now everyone get some rest. Take a nap. Watch Psycho. Or an episode of Travel Man in which Richard Ayoade and Adam Buxton travel to Lisbon. Yeah, something like that.
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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