Late drama at Loftus Road

Of course, anyone who has been to see Queens Park Rangers will know that the Loftus Road Stadium is not on Loftus Road, but South Africa Road.
The only contact the ground has with Loftus Road is between a couple of the house lining the said road, a narrow opening allowing patrons access to the turnstiles of the Loftus Road Stand.

Our game was televised and the road was lined with all sorts of vehicles connected with the TV company filming the event, from BT vans to giant artics to catering trucks setting out their stalls.

It is worth mentioning in passing that the gaps in the buildings giving access to the Ellerslie Road Stand turnstiles and those on Loftus Road were there long before the actual football ground existed, being evident on Ordnance Survey maps of the area in 1893, whereas the ground only came to be used as a football ground in 1904, by Shepherd's Bush FC. They soon disbanded and QPR took over the ground in 1917. Prior to moving to Loftus Road the club had had a nomadic existence having played at more than 10 grounds during their early years. And, even since moving into their present home, they have moved out a couple of times for short periods to the White City Stadium which used to be up South Africa Road towards Wood Lane. In fact the location of that iconic (well, to my generation anyway) stadium which was used for the 1908 Olympics, is where the away coaches are parked these days.

During my SAS days, we had a small depot near White City, which was the starting point for many interesting exercises throughout the UK and I was reminded of this when walking down South Africa Road and passing the 4 Para compound, as we were situated next door to 10 Para (as it used to be before reorganisation) in those far off days in the 60s and, as you can imagine, there was healthy rivalry between the two Regiments. I had a bit of time before the game started so I went for a moment of silent contemplation in Hammersmith Park, sandwiched between the BBC building and local housing, which is a haven of greenery and birdsong amidst the tarmac, brick and concrete of the surrounding cityscape. This park is all that remains of the garden area originally designed for the 1908 Olympics and redesigned as a Japanese garden for an exhibition in 1910.

Queens Park Rangers FC was formed in 1886 by the merger of two clubs, St Jude's  and Christchurch Rangers and presumably named as such because most of the players came from the Queen's Park area. It is interesting that the club claims to have been established in 1882, which is the date of the establishment of the oldest of the two clubs which merged to form QPR. Their nicknames are The Hoops, or Superhoops to ardent fans ( QPR being one of the few clubs in the league to play in hooped shirts), and The R's.

Loftus Road Stadium is a ground squeezed in amongst the houses of West London and it shows inside the ground. The stands cascade almost onto the pitch and it has an unfinished look, possibly because the club is looking at the possibility of moving to a bigger location. There are four stands and they are butt-jointed together so that part of each stand  has seating with restricted views at the extremities. The only place where the seating wraps around the corner is between the South Africa Road Stand and the Loftus Road Stand. At the other corners you can see evidence of preparations being made for the same effect, but it has just been abandoned for some reason.

The away fans are situated in the upper tier of the School End which is a similar layout to the Loftus Road Stand. The school giving it's name to this stand was in place long before the ground and the site is presently occupied by the Jack Tizard School. Fans may have noticed the exterior design of the school which is quite striking, a significant feature because the school presently caters for children with severe special needs. The club also uses the car park of the school as the player's car park on match days. Peering through the fence into the car park like a little boy peering into a sweet shop enabled me to have a few words with JJ (our own Jermaine Jenas) signed by QPR from Spurs. The regular QPR fans refer to the Loftus Road Stand as the Loft and it houses the police control box and on the facia between the two tiers is a small scoreboard.
This scoreboard is repeated at the School End, but a major difference here to the Loft is the location on the roof of a large video screen, which follows the practice seen at some other grounds of being totally invisible to the away fans.

The South Africa Road Stand is the oldest in the ground and is two tiers, the lower tier being very shallow indeed, with a mid-line of executive boxes. The seats are banded white and blue across the upper tier and the players tunnel and dug outs are on the halfway line. Opposite this stand is the Ellerslie Road Stand, a single tiered structure which has further evidence of the squeeze on space inside the ground. The media gantry is installed just under the roof of the stand and almost level with the touchline on that side of the pitch.

Also slotted in, right at the School End of the stand, is a glass fronted box, acting as a TV studio for the pundits at live matches, supported by a pillar and accessed by a set of stairs running up the back of the stand. Some of the restricted view seats are behind this monstrosity which, to my mind is taking the mickey, charging for such a poor view.

The game itself was I think, pretty exciting for the neutral, but ultimately heart-breaking for the Forest fans. Gary Brazil made four changes to the side which fought back so valiantly against Sheffield Wednesday. Collins was suspended after his red card so Kelvin Wilson came in for him and there were also starts for Fox, Cox and Halford. Tudgay, after such a fine first appearance of the season last week picked up an injury in that game (story of our season) and was out and Paterson was also absent through illness. David Vaughan was listed as a sub after another lengthy injury absence, this time for a broken kneecap, but he wasn't called upon to help the cause.

The game started disastrously for The Reds. Halford, whose praises I have sung this season, has one major footballing flaw, a lack of pace. And, within a minute this flaw was exposed by a tricky, pacey winger. Hoilett combined with Carroll, on loan at QPR from Spurs, with Halford backing away from the advancing duo. A shot was fired in, Darlow could only parry the swerving ball and Benayoun headed the loose ball into the net from close range. The hosts enjoyed more of the play for a considerable period until Forest forced a corner in the 37th minute and Lascelles headed an equaliser. This season we have shown a remarkable ability to shoot ourselves in the foot and it happened again just five minutes later. Confident we would go in level at the break, I was thinking that the lads had done well, when Halford was again undone by the winger who finished off a piece of deft interplay with Carroll by pushing the ball past Darlow into the net. 2-1 at the interval. JJ went off after only 13 minutes with a recurrence of an injury.

Second half started quite well. Both sides had chances, with one particular header by Halford from a corner looking bound for the top corner, but the full back on the line managed to get his head to the ball and keep it out. Lansbury and Jara were substituted by Greening and Osborn and they both managed to get into the game, particularly young Osborn who looked lively down the left and was swinging really good corners into the box. And on 75 minutes, he put in yet another dangerous corner for Derbyshire to head into the net.

Game on, though immediately QPR started to put pressure on the Reds defence. And that pressure told when a QPR corner was not properly cleared and the ball was passed to Onuoha who swung the ball into the net for his first league goal of the season. QPR back into the lead and it was one they would not only keep, but increase. During added time they scored two more goals with the Forest defence at sixes and sevens. So the match finished 5-2 to the hosts when only minutes earlier some of us had been dreaming of a winner to the Reds.

I felt sorry for our players as they trooped off, for they had given a pretty good account of themselves and so nearly gained something from the match. So I left and walked up to White City tube station to make my way to Putney Bridge tube station and then across the verdant pastures of Bishop's Park to Craven Cottage, long the home of Fulham FC. I had little chance of actually getting into the ground because they kicked off a Premier League game against Norwich City at 3 pm and I was due to arrive shortly after this. Our game had kicked off at 12.15 due to TV coverage (and as yet, I have not felt able to view the resultant recording). Even if I had been able to wheedle my way into Craven Cottage it is forbidden to take photographs of matches in progress unless specifically authorised. As it was I made for the main reception and pressed my case to a most pleasant lady who politely told me to get lost. Not in so many words, you understand, but that was the import of her message.

So I wandered around the ground and took any number of photos of Johnny Haynes statue and the facade of the ground fronting Stevenage Road because there are just no other views of the ground worth taking. In fact, the Stevenage Road Stand, now renamed the Johnny Haynes Stand, is a Grade II listed building as is the Cottage standing in one corner of the ground. The Cottage was built because the architect of the Stevenage Road Stand, Archibald Leitch, forgot to include changing rooms in his original plan! The players still change in this building and players families and friends traditionally view the game from the balcony here.

One side of the ground is practically in the River Thames. I can remember standing on the old river terrace many times in the sixties. I lived in Putney, over the river, and made many trips to Fulham, Chelsea and the other London grounds in that time.

Fulham were founded in 1879 and have never won a major trophy, which is extraordinary for a club which has been in the top two levels of English football for so long. They moved to the Craven Cottage ground  in 1896 after moving around almost as many grounds as QPR. As at West Ham, the area around the ground is associated with Anne Boleyn, who had hunting grounds in this locality. The original Craven Cottage was built on what is now the centre spot of the pitch, but this building burnt down in 1888 and the area was derelict until Fulham commenced construction of their ground.

The statue of Johnny Haynes commemorates a fine player (who played in the old-fashioned position of inside forward) who achieved fame not only for his fine performances for Fulham and England, but also because, after the removal of the maximum wage, he became the first £100 a week footballer. A sum which seems small beer these days, but in 1961 was a good weekly wage. Most working lads would have considered £10 a week pretty handsome remuneration.

It was pointless to hang around the ground so I made my way back to the tube, my car and the hotel.

Sunday dawned bright and beautiful. I set off round the M25 to drive to Brentford, AFC Wimbledon and Gillingham. Most people who have flown into Heathrow Airport over the City of London will have seen the Brentford FC ground, Griffin Park. They have for many years painted large, bright advertising logos on to the roof of the stands just for that purpose. The ground is similar to Loftus Road in that it is completely hemmed in by residential housing with only the occasional opening through the rows of houses to allow access to the ground.

The actual frontage of the ground is on Braemar Road, but this is even smaller than that of QPR's ground onto South Africa Road. Then one has to walk around to Brook Road to find a narrow entrance to the away stand.
Further round still for the narrow access to the Bill Axbey Stand. The final stand of the ground, the BIAS Ealling Road Terrace has no direct entrance and fans have to make their way through the main entrance gates.

Brentford FC was formed in 1889 and moved to Griffin Park in 1904. Their nickname is the Bees and the bar inside the ground is "The Hive"! Because the ground is so tight to the local housing and was also locked up tight I have little else to say about it. I wandered around as usual, took photos of the four pubs which are to be found at each corner of the ground and climbed up onto any vantage point I could find to try to see into the ground, but it wasn't much.

I even accosted a couple of chaps who walked up to the main gate, hoping they were connected to the club, but they were just waiting for a lift to their Sunday morning game. I understand that Brentford have finally obtained planning permission for a new ground about half a mile from their present site in the curve of the M4 by Chiswick High Road.

So I drove away on a glorious Sunday morning to try and find AFC Wimbledon at their home The Cherry Red Records Stadium, or more simply, Kingsmeadow in Kingston upon Thames, some way from Wimbledon. But I understand they still harbour hopes of returning to their spiritual home. I don't suppose many will need reminding of the move of Wimbledon FC to Milton Keynes and their change to MK Dons. AFC Wimbledon was set up in defiance of the "franchise" move to MK and they have fought their way up the football pyramid.

I have no love of driving in towns, particularly London, because whatever lane I'm in is always the wrong one and Londoners can be so aggressive in their cars, probably because they know exactly where they are going and the quickest way to accomplish that feat. Anyway, after a detour round Hampton Court Palace and a few other map reading mistakes, I turned into the short driveway, Jack Goodchild Way, of the Cherry Records Stadium, though the arch over the road insists that I had arrived at Kingsmeadow. Though that might be the name given to the whole complex, football stadium and athletics venue.
My first impression was not of the football ground, but the buzz of activity going on in the fitness and athletic centre at the other side of the car park. Through a barred gate I could see an athletics track and small stadium laid out and being used most enthusiastically. Actually the athletics area looked bigger than the stadium which is owned by Kingston Council and leased by AFC Wimbledon.

As I parked the car I noted a sign at the end of the car park welcoming me to the Eco House End. I thought this was a fine stand until I realised that the sign was affixed to the back of the athletics track stand! AFC Wimbledon share the ground with Kingstonian FC, who play in the Ryman League. Kingstonian used to hold the lease, but AFC Wimbledon took that over in 2003 in order, I think, to safeguard the future of the ground and also the future of Kingstonian, who use an annual friendly match with Wimbledon to help pay their rent. I remember that, as a young boy, one of the few games on TV was the FA Amateur Cup Final watched by 100,000 spectators at Wembley Stadium! Kingstonian won that trophy in the 20s, but nowadays are a semi-pro outfit.

Sadly, there was no buzz at the football stadium. It seems all London area football grounds are securely locked up on Sundays in contrast to my experience at other grounds round the country. This stillness around the ground should not detract from the dynamic progress AFC Wimbledon have made in their short history. Formed in 2002 by fans dismayed at the disbanding of their club Wimbledon FC to make way for MK Dons, the club has risen from the ninth tier of English football to the fourth in that short time. They are the only club to be formed in the 21st century to play in the league. Despite MK also taking the name "Dons", AFC Wimbledon still proudly use the nickname the Dons themselves, as, I suppose, the rightful successors to that name.



The ground is formed of four stands and despite my best endeavours, that is about all I could see, despite poking my nose through any nook and cranny I could see. The main stand (The Paul Strank Stand) exterior faces the main car park and the police control post is situated at the end of this stand by Jack Goodchild Way. This stand has seating and the one next to it has seating also. Through a small gap in the gate, I could see the EcoHouse End is a neat terrace with a roof and on top of the roof are high nets (similar to those around tennis courts) to stop wild clearances lobbing the ball into exciting athletic events. Opposite the Paul Strank Stand is also terracing topped with a roof which is in turn surmounted by another of those extraordinary media gantries made up of scaffolding poles and corrugated iron. Actually that in itself is a bit of advertising as Paul Strank Ltd is a roofing contractor with a scaffolding hire subsidiary.

I made my way around to the other side of the ground onto the active allotment site alongside the ground, but all I could see was the groundsman's mower and other tools. I'd done the best I could so decided to move on to Gillingham, a ground I had planned to do when visiting friends in Dover, but Mike had had some bad news so I postponed my visit with the result I had to fit it in with other visits. This way seemed the best bet.

Getting to the vicinity of Gillingham was easy, but finding the ground in the maze of housing and one way roads was a bit more tricky even using my ancient sat nav. But we got there. I put the post code into the machine and when I arrived in the vicinity of the ground and saw Priestfield Road,  I thought that the MEMS Priestfield Stadium was bound to be up it. Well, it was, sort of. The road is a dead end with the away supporters turnstiles at the end of it.
A friendly local informed me that I should go up the next road along, Linden Road, and I would find Redfern Avenue, the actual address of the stadium, there. Gillingham were founded as New Brompton FC in 1893, changing their name later, and immediately moved into the Priestfield Stadium where they have played ever since. No one seems to know whether the ground is named after the road or vice versa. The club nickname is The Gills. The chairman has several time indicated he wishes to move the club to a new home (as with many inner city clubs, the land on which the present ground stands is valuable and would be sold to partly fund a move), but this still has yet to be made more than a vision for the future.

The present chairman arrived as owner in 1995 and started to completely modernise the ground, so that the three permanent stands have been rebuilt since then. And, of course, the Brian Moore Stand.

The ground is very short of parking spaces, the frontage on to Redfern Avenue being directly onto the pavement. The players entrance and other vehicular access, is, in fact, through a metal shutter over a gateway at one end of the ground, so short of space are they. On the other side of the ground, the Gordon Road Stand is also directly onto the pavement.
In fact, here there is so little space available that fans have to enter through the ends of the stand, there is no direct entry from the road. There is also a very narrow alley way from both Linden Road and Gordon Road leading round the back of the ground to the away supporters turnstiles at the top of Priestfield Road.

There is some parking available, which of course I used, at the Rainham End of the ground where there is a conference and banqueting facility which is actually attached to the main stand, the Medway Stand. This also houses The Blues Rock Cafe nightspot. Apparently many of the fixtures and fittings of the conference centre were purchased at a discount when these items were sold upon the closure of the Millennium Dome. The ground was locked up tight and I could see little inside.

The Brian Moore Stand, a temporary structure once planned to be a proper stand, houses the away fans. Finances did not allow a permanent structure, so the away fans sit open to the vagaries of the weather, which would be wonderful on the brilliant sunny day I visited, but absolutely appalling in the depths of winter, as the stand is quite high. Yeovil's away stand is bad enough, but is only half the height.

It had been a long and somewhat frustrating day with not one ground penetrated. However, as ever, I enjoyed pottering around the grounds and seeing the ingenious ways clubs find to utilise their assets. I set sail for the Dartford Crossing and home, stopping a couple of times to see the family on the way.  I really am beginning to tick off the grounds and my map now has far more clear pins than colours on it. Only seven grounds to go which does not seem possible, the time has just flown by, how will I fill my time when the season ends?

Wednesday on Tuesday

Tuesday April 8th, a beautiful Spring evening and the visitors are Sheffield Wednesday FC. The visitors are in mid table, but have won three of their last six games including a good win against QPR, so will be no pushovers, especially when you think of our present poor form. We won by a single goal to nil at Hillsborough in early December so are looking for a rare 'double' over our opponents tonight.

In contrast to recent events, nothing of real interest occurred between our loss to Millwall and tonight, so I suppose that's a blessing. Gary Brazil made four changes to Saturday's side. Lascelles had completed his matches out due to suspension and came straight back in to replace Wilson who finished the game on Saturday. I hope that Wilson's absence is only because it is early in his return to action after a long injury lay-off and he is being saved for QPR on Saturday. Lansbury who finished the game against Millwall as sub started in midfield and Derbyshire and Henderson were selected in attack. No matter how much our "strikers" are rotated, they just cannot score goals. Being given a run of games doesn't seem to work so perhaps Mr Brazil is hoping to strike (!) lucky and hit on a pairing that will do the job.

At first, the game wasn't too bad from a Forest point of view except we again got a picky and fussy referee. Three of our players were booked in the first half an hour. Not that there could be too many complaints about the actual bookings, but again it was the other actions of the ref that must have played a part in the frustrations of the players. Plus the Owls were a trifle robust in their tackles and general approach to the game, but no cards were issued to their players. Again the officials were becoming the centre of attention and again the crowd responded by giving them the bird. Then Wednesday opened the scoring with just such a poor decision. Collins slid in to tackle one of their forwards on the right side of the penalty area in front of the Bridgford End after just a quarter of an hour during which we had been giving as good as we got. The linesman was literally yards from the incident and must have seen it clearly, but made no move when the referee blew for a penalty. Replays clearly showed the tackle to be fair with Collins winning the ball.

The first half continued with both sides having a share of the ball, but just before half time Forest scored with a fine goal by Jamie Mackie. Paterson diddled the Wednesday defender down by the left corner flag and put in a superb cross. Mackie made a late run and leapt to head the ball into the net from the edge of the six yard box. Of course, we wouldn't be Nottingham Forest without managing to shoot ourselves in the foot and moments later, during first half stoppage time, Millwall scored again. From a corner, Darlow appeared to have the ball covered at the far post, but a bundle of players converged and the ball went like a bullet into the net. Darlow immediately started protesting to the lino and ref, but his appeals fell on deaf ears. I cannot determine why he was complaining, despite looking at the video replays several times, so I suppose you can't blame the officials for that one. But I did see one of the Wednesday players giving Darlow a consolatory pat on the back as the whistle blew for half time so I think perhaps they did get away with one.

2-1 down at half time and worse, much worse, was to follow. Forest were unchanged at the start of the second half and soon got onto the front foot, working a number of openings without any result, unfortunately. However, Wednesday made their first shot of the second half count. They won a corner and followed a training ground drill by passing the ball to an unmarked player on the edge of the penalty area. Mattock took careful aim and drilled the ball into the bottom corner of Darlow's net. Killer blow, 3-1 down to the team near the bottom of the league and, in all honesty, we really hadn't looked as if we had another goal in the locker, let alone two or more.But, in football as in life, you never know what's around the corner. The forgotten Tudgay came on for Henderson, who frankly was having a nightmare. Hendo looked very useful at the start of the season, but lately his touch has gone, he couldn't trap a bag of cement and his sole idea appears to be to lay out any opposition player who comes near him. For a big bloke who should be able to hold the ball up and trouble defences, he just seems content to try to flick the ball on to no one and wrestle with his marker.

It was an inspired substitution. Mackie won the ball out by the right hand corner flag, moved inside and delicately chipped the ball to the back post for Tudgay to rise and nod the ball firmly into the net. Game on! Tudgay's first goal of the season in his first appearance of the season (he's been away on loan).  Three minutes later and we were back in the dumps. Collins, booked 20 minutes earlier, lunged for the ball out by the left touch line and instead took the player. Second yellow and off. Surprisingly, this seemed to inspire the Reds and the last 10 minutes was full of enterprise and endeavour. Finally with just three minutes remaining we won a free kick on the edge of the Millwall area. There were no recognised free kick specialists remaining on the pitch so Paterson elected, or was selected, to take it. I had thought Fox was good at taking free kicks and he lined up with Paterson, but it was at an awkward angle for the left footer so he left it to the youngster.  And, glory be, Pato smashed it into the back of the Millwall net with their goalie rooted to the spot. Jamie Paterson is turning out to be an inspired signing and a wonderful young player, who actually looks as if he should be getting ready for his GCSEs rather than playing Championship football.

Final whistle went shortly after to a great roar from the Forest faithful. It might only be a draw, but after the dross of recent games and our long winless run, any sort of result is cheered to the echo. A rare shaft of fighting spirit broke through the gloom of the season end, are we going to see a shock win at QPR on Saturday?

We fall prey to a Pride of Lions

A week since the last match, but a week is a long time in football, as Harold Wilson once famously said. Well, maybe not quite. Last week we were floundering about, managerless with seemingly no one wanting the job. Then up stepped a hero from the past, Stuart Pearce, late of England U21's, to offer himself for the job, Psycho himself no less, 12 years as a player who famously ate wingers for breakfast and helped Ted McMinn into orbit.(though later, to show the softer side of the guy, he played in McMinn's testimonial , and even wore a Derby shirt, after the former Derby player had had health problems). And, after discussions, Pearce took the job. He has personal problems to sort out and business commitments that he feels duty bound to honour, so will take the job from 1st July. The media are making much out of this time lag, but I don't feel it to be a problem. Fawaz couldn't get or didn't want any manager currently out of work to take the job, so we would have had to wait until the summer anyway to take advantage of the managerial merry-go-round. Plus, some of the high-profile managers waiting for a job will be waiting for a Premier League offer before considering a Championship club in disarray. And, I understand from the interviews given that he wanted someone with Nottingham Forest connections to become our next manager and no one comes with more credentials in that respect.

And on Thursday the official announcement was made. Gary Brazil will continue until the end of the season as interim manager. Meanwhile Psycho will use the time to build up a backroom staff and give Fawaz a list of players he wants in and out of the club. Mention was made regarding the recruitment of staff and Stuart replied that he couldn't talk about that aspect of his plans as some in his thoughts were already employed at other clubs. More chance for rumour and suspicion; starved of news from the CG because of the Billy ban, the media go all out for criticism of anything to do with NFFC. The media and fans forums are rife with innuendo at the moment regarding all aspects of the appointment, but I'm sure that will settle down as things become clear and more interesting football tittle-tattle elsewhere turns the media heads. And it just has. Hughton has been sacked as Norwich manager with five games to go and attention turns to that club leaving us to gently roll into the season's sunset.

So Stuart Pearce was absent from the picture for the visit of Millwall FC to the CG for a vital game for both teams. They needed a win, being in the relegation zone and perilously close to being too far away from safety as games run out, whilst our fading season needed a lift, mainly to keep close to the playoffs if not actually in the top 6, but also to raise the players and fans morale which is at rock bottom at the moment even after a better performance at Ipswich and the appointment of our legend.

I left home in bright sunshine and headed for Nottingham. The clouds gathered as I got closer to the promised land, surely not a portent for the day ahead. I had left home slightly earlier than normal because I had read, well, actually just glanced at, an item in the Official Site of the Reds, that there was to be a roadshow type event, regarding the coming World Cup, in the car park at the CG. I wandered round to the Megastore and the main reception area thinking this might be one place where such an event would be taking place. But no one had heard of such a plan. Disappointed, I made my way around to the other side of the ground and my usual spot high up in the Brian Clough Stand. Blow me, when I got to the back of the BC there it was.
Like a sort of travelling fair, a couple of stands unfolded out of the back of a couple of transit vans with a few lads running it who were obviously having a ball, going round the UK at the expense of a tyre company who were taking advantage of their part in the sponsorship of the World Cup to puff their product around the country as cheaply as possible. A model of the mascot, whose name is Fuleco, stands in a tyre on the back of one of the vans.

Fuleco is based on the Brazilian three-banded armadillo (I kid you not) who is thought to be an appealing character representing 'Brazil', 'Nature', 'Friendly' and 'Passion for Football'. Actually as I stood looking at him he represented none of these things, but who am I when ranged against none other than Thierry Weil, FIFA Marketing Director, who reckons Fuleco is "fast becoming the most successful World Cup mascot of all time". Even more famous and successful than World Cup Willy?

Prior to the match we were treated to the al Hasawi family emerging from the tunnel and coming on to the pitchside. Fawaz's mother was apparently seeing her first game at the CG. I'll bet she's sorry she chose this match to come here for the first time.  Other visitors to the CG were the Notts CCC team who won the FB40 Cup last summer and they paraded their trophy during half time. The cricket season proper starts very soon and it only seems five minutes since it ended.  Shows how busy and wrapped up in the football I have been during the last seven months.

The game quickly brought me down to earth. Two things rapidly became clear. We had not carried the passion or the football skills over from the Ipswich match and the referee was having a howler. Our first half performance did not warrant any sort of reward, but all this was overshadowed by the appalling decisions of the ref. It would be pointless to try and detail in print how bad his efforts at interpreting the Laws of the Game were, but he started to become the chief character in the game instead of the shadowy figure keeping order. And he appeared to enjoy his notoriety by smiling and nodding when 20,000 fans were using choice epithets to describe his performance. Beware if Mark Brown should darken the door of your ground, unless he is on your side, of course. I'm not suggesting he is biassed, just that his incompetence seemed to extend to more lenient treatment of one side's indiscretions than the other, if he actually saw them, that is.

The first half was eminently forgettable, though, sadly, I can't forget it. We had a few chances, but Millwall scored from their's whereas we did not really get close to a goal with our weak attacks. Their first was a sort of shot/cross/futile effort when you can't think of anything else to do, which cannoned of Jara past the despairing Darlow and into the bottom corner of the goal. Their second was the goal of a player who scores from this sort of shot once a season, if that, because during a ten year career, Martin had scored just 13 goals before today. Lee Martin had a spell at Forest some time ago whilst on loan from Manchester United. He scored his one and only goal for us from much the same position (though at the Bridgford End) as he did for Millwall yesterday. It was a blinder. And I'll bet he hasn't scored another like that until yesterday. In fact he was so excited he ran the length of the pitch back to the away fans and attempted to jump into the stands and embrace a startled Lions fan, or perhaps it was his Dad. Anyway, the club threatened with relegation were 2-0 up and looking good for the points. Their 625 fans ecstatic and who could blame them?

During his several interviews in the week before this game, Brazil had mentioned that some of our injured first-teamers were about ready to return to action. During the first half Greg Halford had a mixed time. He collided with one of the TV cameras seemingly injuring his side and then suffered a head injury in a collision with his own goalie and the opposition centre forward. He was subbed on 40 minutes with Kelvin Wilson taking his place to thunderous applause. Not that we were all pleased to see Halford leave, I for one was applauding more for the return of our classy defender than for the departure of our utility man. I think Halford gets unwarranted stick from some of our support. He is tall, slightly gawky because of this height and he has a languid style which many see as lack of effort. I think him to be a quality footballer who always tries his hardest and is certainly not the worst player in the Garibaldi this season.

And at half time Raddi Majewski was substituted. In his place came Henri Lansbury who took the field to rapturous applause. A key figure in our earlier games, a dynamic attacking midfielder,  he too has been out for some time with, like Wilson, a back injury. His appearance and, no doubt some choice words in the dressing room at half time, galvanised our approach. Millwall were on the back foot and stayed that way for the whole half, not to say they didn't have chances, but they were penned back into their own half for much of the time. Forest, though, only managed one goal for all the effort. Paterson again headed the goal  and for a small player who easily gets pushed off the ball (weight training in the summer for Jamie I think) his ability to get his head to the ball in the penalty area is quite impressive. The cross came in from Harding, squaring the ball across goal from the left edge of the penalty area with Paterson nodding it into the far corner.. Lansbury was booked by the ref in the middle of the half after shouting at him once too often, presumably because he was frustrated by the incompetence of the referee. And Peltier was booked right on time for something, but no one around me at the match or on the forums afterwards could actually work out what that something was.

2-1 to Millwall and I think a fair result, though a hard one to take, because all week all I have heard from the Forest camp is that all is not lost, let's roll up our sleeves and get the job done and then we get that rather tame effort. Anyway, I confess I have more or less accepted that we will finish as also-rans after starting the season with such high hopes.

On to Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday with more hope in my heart.

Gary Brazil Ploughs a Lone Furrow

Saturday 29th March. Virtually a home game for me at Portman Road, Ipswich on a beautiful sunny day. The club was founded in 1878 and merged with Ipswich Rugby Club in 1888 to form Ipswich Town FC playing amateur football, with some success, until turning professional in 1936.

They gained admittance to the Football League in 1938 and had mixed fortunes until the arrival of Alf Ramsey, former Spurs full back, in 1955 on his first appointment as a manager. He was so successful that he was named England team manager in 1963 before leading England to their World Cup win at Wembley Stadium in 1966. It is not hard to see why Ramsey was chosen to lead England. In his eight years at Ipswich he guided a team of able, but not outstanding footballers, from the Third Division (South) to the First Division and then, during their inaugural season in the top flight, to the Championship title.

Another top quality manager joined Ipswich in 1969, Bobby Robson. He led the club very successfully until 1982 winning the FA Cup and UEFA Cup along the way. He, too, left Ipswich to manage England.

The club nicknames are The Blues, quite obvious as their colours are predominantly blue, and the Tractor Boys. This last nickname is frequently used now by the media, but is relatively new, only gaining currency during the last twenty years or so and was actively disliked by some at the club when it first appeared.

Portman Road consists of four stands and an administration block.
The old West Stand, now the East of England Co-operative Stand, was originally built in 1952 and fully up-dated in 1990.
It has two shallow lower tiers of seats and a larger upper tier separated by a row of executive boxes which stops some way short of the Bobby Robson Stand at the North end of the ground. It is somewhat unusual in that, instead of the club name or initials being picked out by different coloured seats, there is a message from the sponsors. The next stand to be built was the Cobbold Stand, which stretches along Portman Road itself, and consists of two tiers again with executive boxes built into the mid-line, though these have obviously been added later as they extend out from the stand with curious sloping roofs which provide a useful space to add extra advertising. Some of the seats at the top of this stand are restricted view as the steel work used to support the stand erupts in amongst the top four rows of seats.
Within the stand facing the road is the Hall of Fame and, directly across the road is the statue of Sir Bobby Robson. Also on the outer wall of the Cobbold Stand, named after the brewing family who were associated with the club for many years and who have provided five chairmen of the club, is one of the sites of commemorative plaques to fans who have passed on. There are other commemorative plaques to fans on the outer wall of the Bobby Robson Stand together with the plaque marking, in 2009, the naming of the stand by Lady Robson.

The two stands at either end of the ground are the newest, being built just after the turn of the century and are two tiered all-seater stands with rows of executive boxes along between the tiers. The players tunnel emerges from between the West Stand and the Alf Ramsey Stand and the police control box stands above it.
This fact led to the police control staff sending a steward over to me prior to the start of the match to warn me about taking photographs inside the stadium. I was taking my usual selections of still and video pictures before the game and I can only think they were unused to having their photo taken, being more used to photographing the innocent fans. The dug outs are in the traditional spot level with the half way line.

The statue of Sir Alfred Ramsey is outside the ground on the corner of Portman Road and Sir Alf Ramsey Way (formerly Portman Way).
Also outside the ground behind the Co-op Stand, but still within the confines of the stadium, is an astro turf practice pitch used by local sports clubs and youngsters being coached by Town staff. The spectators in the Co-op Stand pass through turnstiles on Sir Alf Ramsey Way and then walk over part of this pitch to access their entrance to the stand. The actual club practice ground and academy is situated towards the Kesgrave part of town.

Forest came to Portman Road on a dismal run of form, having drawn two and lost four of their last six games. This has caused us to slip out of the playoff places to seventh position just above Ipswich, on goal difference only,who conversely, are on a great run of form , winning their last two games against playoff rivals. They have taken 12 points from the last 18 available. After our showing against Charlton on Tuesday night, I certainly wasn't feeling too confident of success, but, strangely, I felt that Gary Brazil might pull some rabbits from the hat. He is in charge of the academy and as such knows the form of our younger players. The second string first teamers have not exactly been pulling up trees in recent games so perhaps Mr Brazil will ring the changes.

The first game between the two sides this season finished 0-0 at the CG with Forest frustrated after a dominant performance left us sharing the points. Once again,today,  Ipswich were captained by our ex-player Luke Chambers and once again he ran the gauntlet as he acknowledged the visiting fans presence. Some gave him the bird and some applauded. Former player Paul Anderson also started for Ipswich, but David McGoldrick, who has been in good form this term, appears to be injured and out for the season.

For us Gary Brazil did indeed ring the changes. Not only a change in formation, but a change in tactics which caught Mick McCarthy by surprise and put The Blues on the back foot for the whole of the first half. Young Ben Osborn, who had appeared on the subs bench quite a few times this season, was handed his first start, attacking on the left side of midfield. Lee Peltier also made his first appearance for the Reds after his strange loan move earlier in the week. This enabled Jara to move back to right back, Greg Halford moving into the middle of defence in place of the suspended (for ten yellows) Jamaal Lascelles. Personally, I think Lascelles has done a wonderful job coming in this season after the injuries to, first Kelvin Wilson, then to Danny Collins. Lascelles and Hobbs formed a fine partnership, but when Collins was fit to come back, Hobbs was injured so Lascelles kept his place. In fact, owing to injuries throughout this time, he has more than once been senior partner in central defence. But in the last few games I think the pressure has begun to tell and his form has dipped, so an enforced rest is just what the doctor ordered. Other changes see Raddi Majewski and Jamie Paterson come into the side. The most interesting additions to the squad were on the substitutes bench where young Jack Blake and Stephen McLaughlin made their first appearance for the senior team. (I think). It was also great to see former Forest goalie Steve Sutton stepping out onto the pitch to assist as goalkeeping coach to the senior squad in addition to his duties with the academy.

As I said, Forest were dominant in the first half and should have had more than the single goal scored by Collins from a corner in the fifth minute. Fox put the ball on a sixpence and there was no stopping Collins header. After this we attacked throughout the first half. Ipswich were caught cold and forced into a tactical substitution on 35 minutes with Anderson making way. Then Ipswich made another substitution at half time in an effort to wrest the initiative. Which they did, having far more of the play in the second half, though Forest continued to attack, though rather more sporadically. Finally the Ipswich pressure told, our defence went to sleep when a corner was taken short and the ball was headed into the net for the equaliser. No more goals were scored and the teams shared yet another draw.

I felt much better and more cheerful after this match, the team having played with great verve and enthusiasm with the fans keeping up a good noise throughout the game. Still just outside the playoffs, but facing the future with more optimism, especially as our own Psycho, aka Stuart Pearce, tough tackling legend, seems to have indicated that he is in fact still interested in managing us. What will the next week bring?

No Billy and Mugged by Charlton

I got back Sunday evening from my ground visits after the disgrace at Derby and all seemed normal. But it wasn't really. Though we didn't know it, Billy was yesterday's man, sacked by Fawaz. It only became apparent on Monday when the training staff didn't turn up at the Academy. This was a bit disturbing because we had a game on Tuesday evening with no one at the helm.

I was one of those who welcomed Billy back to the CG. True, he had a strange manner and anyone who had made his acquaintance warned us off him, but his record in the Championship is pretty good and I felt sure that he had learned a bit of common sense. At first he and Fawaz seemed to get on like a house on fire. But the "unfinished business", which I thought was to get Forest to the Prem, in fact seemed to consist of getting even with all his detractors and ruining the structure at the club purely for his own gratification. Many valuable members of the staff were sacked and the only person remaining seemed to be Jim Price, his friend, agent and solicitor who was awaiting a decision on his future after rumours of malpractice at his legal firm in Scotland.

I slowly began to change my opinion and, all in all, I am not sorry the little man has gone, the last months of his tenure were bizarre to say the least. Refusing to talk to sections of the media finally descended into a refusal to talk to anyone except East Midlands Today. There followed a strange interview which would have been funny except that it was conducted by our manager in all seriousness and not on some comedy sketch show. Then there was the dust up with the photographer at the Den (or Hillsborough; anyway, somewhere!) and the constant moaning about our injury crisis. I agree that key injuries were destabilising for a while because the players were going down like nine-pins, but Billy just kept on and on about it whilst making no attempt to change things, such as getting in loan players.

So we were Billy-less. What to do? Fawaz obviously had Neil Warnock lined up because no sooner was the ink dry on Billy's P45 than Warnock was chatting to Fawaz and had arranged for Lee Peltier to join us from Leeds on loan. So much for loans being impossible to do or taking a long time to arrange.

Then the farce began. Warnock decided that Fawaz is too hands-on (apparently it all blew up because Neil was expounding his thoughts on team selection and Fawaz had an alternative suggestion) and stopped talking and withdrew. Poor Lee Peltier, who by this time had signed, wanted to unsign, but it was too late. He only decided to come here because Warnock had persuaded him to do so. Then it became a sort of managerial musical chairs. One by one the list of possibles began to shrink, Psycho (Stuart Pearce, a legend at the club), Malky McKay, Gianfranco Zola  and some Spanish bloke all got a mention before excusing themselves for various reasons.

In the end Gary Brazil from the Academy became interim manager. With an odd assortment of trainers to assist. With only a few hours to assume command he picked a team that might have been a Billy team, full of the usual faces. The portents were not good. Charlton are near the bottom of the league, though they had won three games in succession before losing their last game to Burnley. However they had not won away since November, whilst Forest had not won at all since early February. Abdoun, Halford and Henderson came in and Paterson, Majewski and Moussi were left out. I arrived at the ground and felt totally discombobulated. The whole thing felt leaderless and unreal, the crowd was sparse and the pre-game ritual on the field was quite different; for one thing there were hardly any training staff in evidence.

The managers change, but the game followed the usual pattern. Forest had the best of the first half, hitting the post twice and having one goal-bound effort cleared off the line. 0-0 at half time. Second half Charlton regrouped, sensed that they could get something from the game and came more into it.  With ten minutes to go came the sucker punch. Lascelles, who had earlier been booked for the tenth time this season leading to a two match ban, pushed a gentle ball forward. The pass was too soft and a Charlton man nipped round the intended recipient, flew towards our goal and fired in a shot. The ball struck the post and oh, so cruelly, spun straight to a Charlton player unmarked just a few yards away from an open goal. Despite my prayers, he scored with ease. In the remaining time we had a couple more chances, but they went wide.

So the run continues even without the wee Scot. The next game is on Saturday away at Ipswich. It is practically a home game for me, twenty minutes through the countryside, car parking near Christchurch Park, a gentle walk down to the ground to see....what? A team showing new manager bounce, Gary Brazil picking a few of the younger players he knows so well or the same old collapse? Tell you one thing I can be sure of, it's never dull at Nottingham Forest!