Forest put to the Sword

The FA Cup this weekend. Sheffield Wednesday are playing on the Saturday in a cup game of their own, so we are moving to Sunday. The Blades cancelled a game on Wednesday because their pitch was unfit, waterlogged after all the rain. They and Forest are investing in a cover to protect the pitch from further weather related damage and they are confident the game will take place. We should have played Leicester City at the CG on Saturday; this has now been re-arranged for the Wednesday after our Cup game. Along with all the injuries we now play a very important league match three days after a tough Cup game on a boggy pitch. The Cup run is applauded by some, but to me it is just an impediment to our promotion push.

The game is on, but when I arrived at Bramall Lane in bright sunshine, my worst fear is realised. The pitch is heavy and is going to tire our players. Jack Hobbs and Guy Moussi picked up injuries at Huddersfield and so Danny Collins and Gonzalo Jara come in. Other changes see Dorus de Vries in goal for his usual Cup game, and Darius Henderson in for Djebbour. So Billy has sent out probably the strongest side he could. There was a big crowd at the Stadium and a large travelling contingent. Who were rewarded with a goal by Paterson, headed again, after about half an hour. The game up to then had been fairly even, though Mr Oliver, the referee, produced his usual assortment of puzzling decisions against Forest. First Simon Cox went down for a clear penalty then Andy Reid was tripped in the centre circle, about as blatant a foul as you will see. As a result the Blades raced towards our goal after "winning" the ball. Mr Oliver is a poor referee, but manages to to appear as if he knows what he is doing by strutting about with a self-confident attitude. He booked Reid just before half time as our captain could take no more of the incompetence and protested rather too vigorously against another odd decision.

The score at half-time is 1-0 and Forest are completely in charge. The devaluation of the FA Cup is taken a step further this afternoon by ITV insisting that the draw takes place in the middle of our match and before other clubs have even started their games. Why they don't schedule a short programme to stage the draw on the Monday evening, for instance, just before Emmerdale or one of the other soaps, I do not know. Anyway, the draw threw up the possibility of Sheffield United playing Sheffield Wednesday if both clubs could win. Or it gave us a realistic chance of getting to the Semi-Final at Wembley.

This is credited with boosting the Blades team and they came out all guns blazing after half time. Forest still had good chances as well, but neither side could take advantage and the score stayed at 1-0. However, on 66 minutes, Bramall Lane went mad as United scored. A hard low cross from the right was covered by de Vries, but the ball squirmed from his grasp. There still appeared no danger as Lascelles got to the ball first. But, trying to turn with the ball to fire it to safety he tangled with Coady, the ball ran loose in the wrong direction, right at Coady's feet in front of an open goal and he pushed it in the net.

After this both teams had chances to score, but time moved on and the score stayed locked at 1-1. With a minute to play, Mr Oliver gave yet another of his decisions against Forest. The Blades moved down their left to the goal line. The ball was crossed low towards the penalty spot and Halford, in going down to block the ball, was adjudged to have handled in the area. Penalty. Definitely ball to hand from about two or three yards. Halford did not have his hands in an 'unnatural' position as noted in the guidelines to referees and, if the ball had not hit his hand or arm, it would still have been blocked by his body. The referees decision is final and he said handball. United scored. To rub salt into the wound, a minute into injury time, the Blades scored again. Once more they got to the goal line on the left, the ball was hit into the area under de Vries's body and an unmarked Porter scored his second in two minutes after only being on the pitch four and a half minutes.

All this mayhem in the match was being conducted against a backdrop of constant pitch invasions and crowd unrest (though, it must be said, from over-exuberance and not malevolence); indeed, at one stage, the crowd behind that goal thought the game was over and invaded the pitch during play!

So the game ended quite disappointingly from a Forest point of view. Though, I have to say, I for one was not too sad that our cup run is over. Fixture congestion in itself is not too bad, but with our injury list there is no chance for injured players to come back in and there is always the danger of further injuries because of the crowded schedule.

I made my way back to the car and home. Mercifully I had been able to park only a few hundred yards from Bramall Lane ground, in fact just off Bramall Lane itself because the normal parking restrictions are suspended on a Sunday, and was able to dart off down the A61 towards home without delay.